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When Puerto Rico Found Its Way Into My Kokeshi Dolls
As I learned more about kokeshi and Japanese aesthetics, I started wondering what I would paint if I imagined myself as a kokeshi artisan living in Puerto Rico.
STUDIO NOTES
Sara Figueroa
8/7/20262 min read
One of the things that impresses me most about Japanese culture is the way nature seems to be woven into everyday life and aesthetics. There is an awareness of season, landscape, plants, animals, materials, and place that feels deeply meaningful to me.
That resonates with my own personal development. Through my studies of East Asian philosophies, Yoga, and Ayurveda, I’ve come to believe that we are profoundly shaped by the natural environment we live in, and that part of living well is staying connected to nature and learning to live in harmony with it.
As I became more familiar with the traditional and creative kokeshi doll-making culture, and with Japanese visual language in general, I started imagining myself as a kokeshi artisan living here in Puerto Rico.
What would I notice? What would I paint? What would naturally find its way onto the dolls?
The answer was all around me.
Tropical leaves, birds, textures, and forms I had known for years but was suddenly looking at more closely. Now, instead of cranes, the island's white herons. Instead of cherry blossoms, our endemic flower, the Flor de Maga.
That’s how Puerto Rico began appearing in my kokeshi. It wasn’t really a branding decision or an attempt to create a deliberate “Japan meets Puerto Rico” style. It happened because I began creating from the place where I actually live.
I like to imagine that I’m connecting with the island’s nature, its energy, and its spirit, and then expressing what I see and feel through the visual language of kokeshi.
For me, that feels like a very natural meeting point. Japanese culture has given me new ways of seeing and appreciating nature, while Puerto Rico gives me the landscape I am actually looking at and experiencing.
In my own way, I’m honoring my Puerto Rican heritage while still being true to who I am and to the influences that have genuinely shaped me as an artist.
I don’t know exactly where that will lead, and I don’t want to define it too tightly.
For now, I’m simply paying attention to what grows, flies, blooms, and lives around me — and wondering how it might look on the next kokeshi painting.
♥
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