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Apr 11 2014 24 Comments

An incredibly disturbing doll

Tokyo has its fair share of antique markets, many of which offer an interesting look into Japan’s past — both of the fairly recent variety, and much further back. But they can also offer you a look at something you’d rather not have seen, either in the past, or the present.

very disturbing and scary Japanese doll

Categorized: Photography

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lizzy says

    4/11/2014 at 8:40 am

    That is beyond disturbing. I’ve got goosebumps.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      4/11/2014 at 1:06 pm

      Not very nice, is it? Perhaps the only thing more disturbing than the doll is imagining the kind of mind that made it!

      Reply
      • Lizzy says

        4/13/2014 at 3:14 am

        Yes! Exactly….

        Reply
  2. willy says

    4/11/2014 at 2:29 pm

    … at an incredibly disturbing price…

    Reply
    • Lee says

      4/11/2014 at 4:25 pm

      Yes. Sleepless nights clearly don’t come cheap…

      Reply
      • willy says

        4/11/2014 at 9:46 pm

        he he.. !

        Reply
  3. ex-expat says

    4/11/2014 at 6:17 pm

    And the asking price is $1,300 ??????!!!!!!!!!

    Reply
    • Lee says

      4/11/2014 at 10:22 pm

      It is. But at the same time you will, without any shadow of doubt, be getting a unique piece of art!

      Reply
  4. Martin B says

    4/11/2014 at 9:17 pm

    That’s even more creepy than the scarecrow mannequins.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      4/11/2014 at 10:24 pm

      I thought that, but the other day I photographed a mannequin that may even out-disturb this.

      Brace yourself!

      Reply
      • Martin B says

        4/12/2014 at 7:38 am

        I’m getting a bit worried now, in a morbidly curious sort of way.

        Reply
        • Lee says

          4/12/2014 at 3:25 pm

          Haha, it’s not that bad! It is though a new twist on my other mannequin shots…

          Reply
  5. Hans ter Horst says

    4/12/2014 at 1:07 am

    As a youngster I read the Gothic novel Burn, Witch, Burn! and it gave me nightmares, this is what i imagined the the puppets of Madame Mandilip looked like! (Great shot!)

    Reply
    • Lee says

      4/12/2014 at 3:23 pm

      Cheers!

      Looking at the cover, I’m not surprised it did. Even less if this reminds you of the puppets!

      Reply
  6. LAObserver says

    4/12/2014 at 10:54 am

    The reminds me of A Clockwork Orange.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      4/12/2014 at 3:24 pm

      Interesting. Hadn’t thought of that.

      Reply
  7. Squidpuppy says

    4/13/2014 at 2:18 am

    Actually, and it’s just me, I know, but that get up puts it into a familiar context – of horror movies. I find the natural state of porcelain dolls far creepier; in Victorian children’s clothing. Just sitting there looking at you with those glass eyes. From a chair in the corner of the room. And then, of course, it blinks.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      4/13/2014 at 10:51 am

      Believe me, it isn’t just you. For some reason I find most dolls unsettling, but in particular old, more traditional ones. Finding them in abandoned buildings is always both fascinating and horribly unpleasant…

      Reply
      • Squidpuppy says

        4/14/2014 at 2:11 am

        Kokeshi really creep me out. Then when I learned of one theoretical root source for them, it made it way worse! In case you hadn’t heard, there’s a theory that kokeshi represent dead, or poverty-based murdered children. Their limblessness is a representation of swaddled infants. Ugh.

        Reply
        • Lee says

          4/14/2014 at 8:40 am

          Yeah, it’s not a nice image to say the least, is it?

          In one of Alan Booth’s books, he mentioned giving his parents a pair of kokeshi dolls. A couple who had spiritual leanings of some description or other – I don’t remember what exactly. But they wouldn’t display them and kept them sealed in a box at the bottom of a cupboard cos the dolls made them feel so uneasy. And if I remember rightly, they were utterly oblivious to any such dark meaning of the dolls too.

          Reply
  8. Bernadette Marchetti says

    4/14/2014 at 1:42 am

    My first boyfriend was an Art major at Carnegie Mellon University (it’s one of the best schools for Fine Arts in the US). This piece reminds me a LOT of what the inscrutable minds of the students produced there. Keep in mind that CMU is also one of the best schools for Computer Science and is one of the leading research institutions in Artificial Intelligence and Human Computer Interaction. It was not uncommon to see women showing up to class in dresses made entirely from black electrical tape. And I do mean *entirely*. That school is the quintessential playground for freaks and geeks. But it was always interesting!

    Reply
    • Lee says

      4/14/2014 at 8:43 am

      Wow, that sounds quite a place. Just hope that any kind of Artificial Intelligence breakthroughs aren’t granted to monstrosities like the doll above!

      Reply
  9. winnie says

    4/21/2014 at 7:49 pm

    I will going to have nightmare…

    Although the doll looked creepy and disturbing, i feel a bit sad for “him”. It seem like he was tortured.
    I am sorry that I might be weird for saying this. He contain the elements of sado-masochism to me.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      4/21/2014 at 8:54 pm

      No, not at all. Definitely elements of that I’d say.

      Reply

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