Hananuma Masakichi (花沼 政吉; 1832-1895) was a Japanese sculptor an doll maker who specialized in "iki-ningyo" or lifelike dolls. He was trained in the art under Gohei Nezumiya in Tokyo, during the 1870's. A number of his works have survived in American and British collections, notably those of Ripley's Believe It or Not! and the Sheffield Museum (the home town of the father of the Deakin Brothers of Yokohama, dealers in oriental art and curios in the 1890s).
Following his training under the fourt...
