A Beautiful Geisha Girl

I have no idea what she may be worth, but it doesn't matter to me because I'll never sell her. I just love her!

I only just found her at an antique shop down the road. I do enjoy collecting geisha dolls, but I almost never come across new ones to add to my small, humble collection. But when I saw her, I just couldn't leave her. She's about 23" tall, much larger than my other geisha dolls. And she's much more detailed; her entire body except for her torso is made of porcelain, so she's very fragile. She doesn't bend into different positions, she stays held up with a doll stand for display. And she doesn't have a scratch on her! When I brought her home, of course I cleaned the dust and dirt spots off her, but she was completely clean in under 2 minutes! Not to mention her kimono is stunning.

I don't know much about her history, but I am planning on going back to the antique shop where I found her sometime very soon, so that I can ask the shopkeeper how long she had her and where she originally bought her (most items in her store are things from her attic, so I expect she must've had the doll for at least a few years).

In fact, I just got back from visiting her shop. She recognized me immediately, and we had a wonderful talk. She told me she'd tried to look the doll up before, but she never found anything. I told her that when I'd gotten her home, I noticed a small signature on a ribbon inside her kimono; it said "Lena Liu." She told me she'd never noticed that signature, and so we looked the name up. I got a great surprise! It turns out that the doll is a Danbury Mint, she's been hand-signed by the artist, and the doll's name is Kyoko.

I do wonder about her face, though; most geisha dolls traditionally have the white face make-up, but she doesn't. It has me curious about it, so I hope to learn soon the history of this doll; I'd really love to find out about how old she is. In the meantime, I'm enjoying her company. She's a beautiful display piece in my room!