In 2003, in the Wakayama Prefecture outside of Osaka, Japan, 51-year-old schoolteacher Kimiko Hirahata attended a festival for the local technical high schools, seeking inspiration for her lesson plans. Hirahata taught her students in a variety of media, from pottery and painting to lamp-making and calligraphy. But what appeared at the festival that day was something completely different. “When I saw a doll carrying tea,” Hirahata says, “I was amazed.” The doll was a karakuri—a traditional automaton. Like many other karakuri, the one Hirahata saw at the festival was entirely…
