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Hakota Doll Workshop

Traditional toyKurayoshi City, Tottori Prefecture

Bingo-ya is a toy workshop in Kurayoshi City, Tottori Prefecture, that has been operating for over 200 years. Founded in the late Edo period, the company has made toys since 1781.

The area around the workshop used to be bustling with many merchant families who used paper to keep books and write letters. It is said that Bingo-ya reused that paper to make hariko papier-mâché toys for children.

Hariko is a Japanese papier-mâché craft. To make hariko, paper is stretched over a wooden mold, the paper-mâché is removed from the wooden mold, the base is coated with gofun (white paint made from crushed shells), the paper is colored with Japanese paints, and finally, the paper is glazed with glue.