About 260 years ago, during the Genbun era of the Edo period, a man by the name of Tadashige Takahashi, who worked at Kamigamo Shrine in Kyoto, took the leftover willow wood from making boxes to store sacred instruments and carved dolls with it by making grooves to attach pieces of the Shinto priests’ robes as clothing for them.
These small dolls which take advantage of the texture of willow wood were known as “Kamo Dolls” or “Yanagi Dolls” and were highly prized in Edo later on.
This is said to have been the origin of Kimekomi Dolls.
