Special Exhibit - Nagano Prefecture's Blue-eyed Dolls

Shinano Education Museum
Special Exhibit - Nagano Prefecture's Blue-eyed Dolls
November 15 - December 14, 2001

Photo of the 23 Blue-eyed Dolls of Nagano Prefecture

The Shinano Education Association sponsored a special one-month exhibit of Blue-eyed Dolls at the Shinano Education Museum in Nagano City. The exhibit included all 23 Blue-eyed Dolls remaining in Nagano Prefecture.

The museum displayed many other items related to the Blue-eyed Dolls, including photos, newspaper articles, and pamphlets. The sixth-grade students at Watauchi Elementary School created many exhibits about their school's doll Mary and about the Blue-eyed Dolls in Nagano Prefecture and Japan.

Blue-eyed Dolls on Display
With Related Photos and Articles

Click to see doll with accessories.

Miss Fukuoka

Miss Fukuoka, one of the 58 Japanese Friendship Dolls sent to America in 1927, was also on display with the 23 American Friendship Dolls. Miss Fukuoka is kept at the University of Oregon Museum of Art in Eugene, Oregon. The doll has been on exhibit at the Yokohama Doll Museum since November 2000 while the University of Oregon Museum of Art is being renovated.

In conjunction with the doll exhibit, the Shinano Education Association devoted its November 2001 issue of the Shinano Education journal to the Blue-eyed Dolls. This issue contains color photos of each of the 23 dolls in Nagano Prefecture and separate one-page articles about the history of each of the dolls. The 12 other articles in the journal cover topics such as:

- Discovery of Miss Nagano
- Songs of the Friendship Doll Exchange
- Blue-eyed Dolls and Nagano Prefecture's Teachers
- Blue-eyed Dolls, Ambassadors of Peace - From Last Century to the New Century

Friendship Visits - November 2001

Photo of "23 Blue-eyed Dolls of Nagano Prefecture" from the Shinano Education journal (November 2001) and used with permission of the Shinano Education Association