Is the course of our destiny predetermined,
or can we shape it ourselves?
We build from tiny pieces of a mosaic,
but we can only see the whole picture at the very end.
It has been exactly 15 years since I started making kokeshis, and it has also been exactly 10 years since I met Master Aoki Ryoka. Our first joint exhibition took place in Tokyo five years ago. These have been active, dynamic, and creative years together, full of challenges, difficulties, and losses, but equally full of trust, gratitude, joy, and vitality. Perhaps it is impossible to describe in words the creative communication that exists between us, despite the physical, social, cultural, and generational distances. Despite language barriers, yet understanding each other without words, we know that we walk this path together until the baton is passed on.
Looking back, I see a series of magical events. The kokeshi doll character in the storybook I wrote twenty years ago concludes the story by saying that if the kokeshi works a miracle in your life, pass it on so that the miracle may also reach the lives of others. Now the miracle has happened to me as well: eight years ago, Master Aoki Ryoka entrusted me with the unfinished works she had accumulated over her lifetime, so that I could create with them as I pleased and bring them to completion. I cannot even begin to describe what an honor this is! Thus, over the years, I have shipped hundreds of kilograms of wooden doll blanks to Hungary and created works from them.
However, letting go is also an integral part of Japanese kokeshi traditions. The annual kokeshi burning ceremony is a ritual of renewal and gratitude that connects earthly life with the divine. This ceremony is part of the culture, yet for Master Aoki Ryoka, it also manifested as an independent, living energy. A few months ago, the flames of the fire carried away every masterpiece of her life’s work, along with her workshop. It was a celestial purifying fire.
Yet my 95-year-old master, like a phoenix, began rebuilding his workshop from the ashes! His immense human strength and poise nourish his creative spirit, which was palpable in his works. Thus, the countless kokeshi bases—which honored me by allowing me to assist in their rebirth—gained even greater spiritual value. It was here that our creative paths finally converged.
During our lengthy correspondence, my master concluded one of his letters with the following touching line: “I had lived my life in one place, like a frog at the bottom of a well, when you fluttered in to me like a butterfly and brought me news.”
Réka Tóth-Vásárhelyi