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Margaret Geist Collection of Ryukyuan Folk Arts
The Margaret Geist Collection at the Michigan State University Museum, is made up mostly of toys and dolls collected in Okinawa by Margaret Geist from 1957-60 and 1964-66. Okinawa, the most populous island in the Ryukyu Island chain, is found half-way between the southern-most of Japan's four main islands and Taiwan. Okinawa was under American occupation from 1945 until 1972, when governance of the island was given back to Japan. In the 1950s, Geist and her children accompanied her husband, Dr. Robert Geist, a member of the English faculty at Michigan State, to Okinawa where he worked as part of a team from MSU that was dedicated to starting the University of the Ryukyus. Margaret, an artist, immediately became fascinated with the folk art, or mingei, of Okinawa. During her time on the island, she promoted indigenous Okinawan crafts, meeting with local artisans and lecturing frequently to groups of Americans there, as well as to Okinawans themselves, including the Shuri Women's Handicrafts Group. The collection that Margaret Geist amassed during her two stays in Okinawa ranged from pottery and paintings to textiles to toys and dolls. Margaret used the collection for teaching and exhibited them in Lansing area schools in the 1970s. In 2000, Gretel Geist Rutledge, also a professor at Michigan State University, donated her mother's collection to the university museum. In addition to the materials from the Ryukyus, there are also some toys and dolls from mainland Japan and Korea.
The papier-mâché toys in the Geist Collection are all Okinawan, and documentation that came with the collection provides evidence that Geist knew at least one of the artisans. Both people and animals are represented in papier-mâché. One of the toys, the aka-beko, or "red calf," is a form commonly found throughout Japan. It is a reminder of a Buddhist tale set in feudal Japan in which a red ox carting materials for the construction of a new temple was so faithful to the Buddha that it would not leave after the completion of the temple. The animal became a popular subject for children's toys, not only for its religious message, but also because the color red was thought to protect children from smallpox.
Another highlight of the collection is a group of kokeshi dolls, perhaps the most recognized traditional Japanese toy in the West. Of the forty kokeshi dolls in Geist's collection, at least three are Ryukyuan. with distinctive features that set them apart from those produced on the four main islands of Japan. These features include rounder eyes and a bright coloration, especially seen in the use of bright yellow. Many of these dolls represent specific dances that accompany seasonal festivals.
Also included in the Geist collection are several other wooden toys, including itto bori (traditional carvings of birds), a doll depicting a badger from Japanese legend, daruma dolls, taiguruma (sea bream on wheels), kujira guruma (whale spraying salt on wheels), and fifteen ito-mari thread balls) that were traditionally made by mothers as New Year's gifts for their daughters.
Margaret Geist's collection is important not only because it provides visitors with access to the unique designs and forms of the folk arts of Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands, but also because it represents a key moment in the history of international engagement and outreach at Michigan State University. It serves as a reminder both of one woman's passion for Okinawan folk crafts and of the lasting partnership forged between MSU and the University of the Ryukyus.
Donors and Fieldworkers
Gretel Geist Rutledge Margaret Geist
Exhibitions
"Toys and Dolls of the Ryukyus Islands: The Margaret Geist Collection," and "Collections are…self-referential," in Collections Connections, MSU Museum, 2007.
"Fighting Roosters" toy, papier-mache, Okinawa, Japan
Papier-mache horse and rider toy, Okinawa, Japan
Thread ball, Okinawa, Japan
Margaret Geist Collection of Ryukyuan Folk Arts
