Few people know that the matryoshka is not at all an original Russian folk doll: the idea of its creation was borrowed from an oriental god, moreover, relatively recently - at the end of the 19th century.
Millionaire gift
One could look for the roots of the Russian nesting doll among the pre-Christian Slavic goddesses or Polovtsian stone idols, but this path is wrong.
According to official historiography, in the last decade of the 19th century, an art workshop with the noble name "Children's Education" appeared in Moscow. This institution employed craftsmen for the production of children's toys, samples of which ethnographers managed to find in the villages and villages of the Russian Empire. One of the artists of the workshop, Sergei Malyutin, was close friends with the family of the famous philanthropist, industrialist and millionaire S. I. Mamontov. The famous rich man knew perfectly well about Malyutin's work and once gave him an unusual doll from his collection, advising him to create a real national Slavic toy on its basis. Savva Ivanovich's gift was a figurine of a bald old man Fukuruma, which the industrialist's wife brought from the Japanese island of Honshu.
In Japanese folklore, this old man is considered a saint who brings prosperity and good luck to the house. The figurine was round, had neither arms nor legs, but consisted of several figures of a god inserted into one another. In a word, everything is like that of the current Russian nesting doll.
Maiden beauty
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While developing a new toy, the author aimed no less at creating a national image, and therefore paid serious attention to the design and name. So, on a wooden blank, the classic image of a Russian girl appeared - ruddy, chubby, with a fair-haired braid. The beauty was also dressed classically for a woman from the middle zone of the Russian Empire: a beautiful embroidered shirt with a sundress and an apron over it. There were no problems with the name of the new toy either. The artist called her the most fashionable female name of those years - Matryona, which, moreover, successfully echoed the word "mother", popular in all ages in Russia.
The composite multi-seat doll was a new and unusual phenomenon for Russia. But purely technical problems did not arise at all: since in Russia wood craftsmen have been grinding wooden Easter eggs for many centuries, it was easier for them to carve a nesting doll.
The first nesting doll, made by order of Malyutin by his friend, a master of wooden toys from Sergiev Posad, was for eight. Girls alternated with boys, and the last, eighth inhabitant of the matryoshka was a baby in swaddling clothes.
Amulet doll
The predecessor of the Russian nesting doll, the Japanese old man Fukuruma, the god of luck, wisdom and learning, has another name, which orientalists consider more correct: Fukurokuju. This name is formed from three parts, meaning "happiness", "wealth" and "longevity". And of course, this deity is considered in Japan as one of the symbols of the happiness of abundance. And paradoxically, the Japanese god passed on his power to the Russian toy: the matryoshka, having settled in Russia, almost immediately turned into a talisman doll, bringing happiness and well-being to the house. And I must say that this tradition managed to survive in the Soviet Union and survived safely to this day.
The best
The Russian nesting doll, based on the Japanese god, has become popular all over the world over time. Many countries, including China, India and the United States, have started the production of their nesting dolls, of course, by coloring them according to their native national motives.
The world's largest nesting doll, 30 meters high, is a building located in the city of Manchuria in China. And the largest classic unfolding matryoshka is 1.5 meters high. It was made in Soviet times by the specialists of the factory in Semyonovo and in 1970 it was presented to Japan as a sign of solidarity between the two cultures.
Of the record-holding matryoshka dolls in our country, there is also the smallest toy measuring 1 millimeter, made by a craftsman from Omsk, Anatoly Konenko.
And only in Russia there are museums of matryoshka dolls: in Moscow, Sergiev Posad, Nizhny Novgorod, Kalyazin, Nolinsk and Voznesensky.
Daruma tumbler
According to one version, at his dacha in Abramtsevo, the industrialist Mamontov gave the artist Malyutin not the god Fukurum, but a Japanese toy Daruma, which is still incredibly popular in the Land of the Rising Sun.
According to an ancient legend, a daruma is not just a wooden doll that looks like an egg, but a talisman of happiness and good luck. And she is nothing more than a symbolic image of the ancient Indian sage Daruma.
In the 5th century, this man moved to China, and from there the spiritual teaching he created spread to Japan. It is believed that Daruma, like Buddha, gained wisdom through deep contemplation, retiring for this noble purpose in a mountain cave. However, from prolonged meditation, which lasted more than 9 years, the sage became very fat and his legs were lost. This is probably why they grind Daruma in such a way that the doll is a tumbler. As for the rest, in its form and manner of painting, Darum differs little from the Russian nesting doll, except for the drawing. But it is interesting to note that Daruma, which is sold in Japanese stores, has no pupils. Having bought a doll on New Year's Eve, the Japanese themselves draw one pupil for her and make a wish. If after a year the wish comes true, a second pupil is drawn to the doll, and if not, then it is burned in anger. This tradition is more than one hundred years old, which meanswishes still come true.
make a wish
In Russia, there is a practice similar to the Japanese New Year ritual. With its help, you can make wishes. In order for your plan to come true, you need to write your innermost dream on a piece of paper and put it in a matryoshka doll. They say it is being fulfilled. At the same time, the speed of realizing a dream directly depends on the number of internal nesting dolls placed in the main one.
One in the other
What do several wooden dolls stacked one into the other mean in the East? According to ancient oriental teachings, a person is a multi-level energy system. The first physical body is the largest, outer matryoshka. This shell has a low vibration and is responsible for the person's connection with the outside world. Next comes the astral body. This shell is energetic, duplicating the first, physical one. She is responsible for saturating the human body with energy. The third shell and the third matryoshka is a mental body that controls our thoughts, feelings, you and emotions. The fourth nesting doll is a casual shell that is responsible for cause-and-effect, connections and transfer of experience accumulated by a person in his previous incarnations. The fifth body is buddhic, in which the human soul is concentrated. And finally, the sixth, atmic body,called the mystics spirit, or the relationship of man with God.
Magazine: All the mysteries of the world №14. Author: Dmitry Sivitsky