Japanese Doll, ca. 1937
Lt. Col. Grace Dick, DIN ’29, offered this Japanese doll for display to University Hospital (what is now the University of Maryland Medical Center) on Nov. 24, 1945. The doll belongs to the Living History Museum’s collection and was included in the Heritage Room in Parsons Hall, the precursor to today’s museum.
The doll was originally a present to Maj. Gen. William C. Chase, commanding general of the First Brigade, First Cavalry Division during World War II, from Tetsue Sakai, a prominent resident of the area of Occupied Japan that Chase commanded. Later, Chase was a patient at the 42nd General Hospital in Australia, staffed by medical, nursing, and dental graduates of what is now the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and in gratitude for the care he received, he presented the doll to the unit. Dick, as chief nurse on the unit, brought the doll back to Baltimore.
Created circa 1937, the doll represents the Fuji Musume or Wisteria Maiden. This was the final in a suite of five dances performed in Edo (now Tokyo), Japan, in 1826 and featured a young woman changing kimonos four times against a backdrop of wisteria flowers. The dance was revived in 1937 to include the maiden’s transformation into the spirit of the wisteria.
Heritage Room in 1995