Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: どんどろ, Dondoro Doll, Itō no Dondoro
Category: Object
The Myth
Dondoro is a strange folk-art figure that was sold as a souvenir in Itō, Shizuoka Prefecture, from around the 1950s onward. The figure consists of a bizarre head made from materials such as paper clay, mounted on a wooden base. It became known by names such as Dondoro Ningyō, or Dondoro Doll, and Itō no Dondoro, meaning Dondoro of Itō.
According to a legend printed with the dolls, Dondoro originated from a foreign deity brought to Japan by William Adams, the English navigator who served Tokugawa Ieyasu and became known in Japan as Miura Anjin. While building a Western-style sailing ship at the Itō Tōjingawa under Ieyasu’s orders, Adams supposedly remembered a god worshipped on a South Sea island he had visited before reaching Japan. He enshrined the deity in the hope of suppressing an outbreak of disease, and the ritual was said to help bring the shipbuilding project to completion.
The Dondoro Doll was presented as a representation of this foreign deity, which supposedly continued to be venerated in Itō. The figure was promoted as a protective charm against evil and a bringer of good fortune. However, the doll’s actual origins appear to date only to the postwar period, and the story connecting it to William Adams is believed to have been invented to give the souvenir an appealing legendary history.
Sources
“Dondoro.” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1062982791.html