Karakuri Exhibition Hall

The karakuri ningyo on display here are wooden mechanical dolls built between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, using systems of cogwheels, springs, and pulleys to produce lifelike movement. The larger festival float dolls were made for the Inuyama Festival, held each April since 1635, where teams of seven or eight people on the second story of parade floats operate dolls performing mythological scenes overhead. The smaller zashiki karakuri were collected as luxury toys by the elite. The most well-known type served tea: it would move forward, bow, and stop when the cup was removed. The mechanism was powered by a spring made from whale whisker. Live demonstrations are held on weekends.