Detail: Japanese woodblock artist Kawase Hasui (1883–1957) was primarily a landscape artist and rarely produced works featuring other subjects. However, in 1935 he designed a series of woodblock prints that focused on traditional Japanese dolls, including Imperial Palace dolls, known as gosho ningyo. That same year, the 24 ningyo prints in this series were published in an album entitled Japanese Dolls: Gosho Ningyo by Meiji-Shobo. The twelve prints on display at VMFA were selected from the album, donated by René and Carolyn Balcer.