The Lolita Complex: - Scholarly Commons Home

any dialogue, the “pathos, agony, heroism and loss” * 58 inherent in Japanese
theatrical tragedies in a heartbreakingly moving, quiet and dignified way.
The “Bloodstained Doll”
Perhaps the most profound demonstration of the significance of dolls in
Japan, reflecting the connection with pathos, agony, heroism and loss that is
so ingrained in Japanese culture, is investigated by Schattschneider in her
discussion of one of the most traumatic episodes in Japan’s history, World
War II, and the deep relationship between Japanese people and dolls,
particularly during this time.
Schattschneider writes that, from the 1930s, hundreds of thousands,
maybe millions, of ningyō “known variously as imon-ningyō (companion or
safeguarding dolls), migawari-ningyō (sacrificial or substitute dolls) or masukotto
(mascot dolls)” were given or sent to Japanese servicemen so that the
soldiers’ loved ones, wives, lovers, sisters, mothers and daughters, believed
to be spiritually present in these effigies, could be by their sides at all times. 59
The author explains that “during the war’s early phases the dolls
functioned primarily as amulets (onamori) evoking reassuring links” to back
home:
* Pate uses these keywords in regard to bunraku theatre. He does not refer to Kitano’s Dolls. I have
borrowed this terminology as it aptly describes, for me, the essence of this film.
Page | 143