A poetic vintage omiyage kokeshi from Hakodate (函館), Hokkaidō, combining the charm of regional souvenir craft with one of the best-known verses of modern Japanese poetry.
The doll has a rounded wooden body topped with a broad kasa-style travelling hat, while the front is hand-painted with a coastal landscape in blue, brown and red. Across the body appears the opening of the celebrated poem:
“On the white sand of a small island in the eastern sea"
The poem was written by Ishikawa Takuboku (石川啄木, 1886–1912) and published in his famous 1910 poetry collection Ichiaku no Suna (一握の砂, “A Handful of Sand”). Takuboku had a particularly strong connection with Hakodate, where he lived for a short but important period in 1907. The city later became deeply associated with his memory, and literary monuments and commemorative sites dedicated to him can still be found there.
This makes the kokeshi more than a simple travel souvenir: it is also a small piece of Japanese literary tourism, linking the landscape of Hakodate with Takuboku’s poetry and the nostalgic culture of regional omiyage.
