Has anybody seen this before ? [ Made in Japan Round Head Wood Souvenir Figurines ]

This was given to me by My mother in law. I guess she got this one from her uncles.
She said she thinks its from around WW II time. I've never seen one before.
But it looks like a typical Hawaiian souvenir from some years back.
It's kind of beat up,but it's a pretty cool find for the tiki bar.

[ Edited by: Bora Boris - Added a description. - 2014-03-30 10:51 ]

A bit dusty but they hang out with the rest of the natives on top of the fridge

I had a whole village of similar ones at one point. I think your dates are pretty accurate. You know they were tourist-y things but they are awesome. Wish I could find them. I have a little set of them in a boat thats really cute.

I think Randy (AquaRJ) might...:)

Thank you for the responses !! Nice Village : )
I love the ones on the boat too. I was thinking off adding some new palm leaves to the trees.
or maybe I should just leave it alone...hmm

Once again Freddie House of Ku has my number!

My wife really likes those, and I do too, so we have a few of them and kinda keep an eye out for them. As far as I know, those figures are only from Japan, and from the "made in Japan" era, which was after the "occupied Japan" era. So that would be more like late 50s and 60s, as opposed to WWII era. The United States, and Hawaii in particular, weren't quite on friendly terms with Japan during WWII, so there wasn't so much of a trade in tourist goodies going on with them.

So it was actually the same era that a lot of tiki mugs and stuff were being made in Japan. Like many of the mugs we all know, I think these figures were mass-produced, but hand painted. It's fun to see all the variations - some are explicitly for Hawaii, and some are more vaguely tropical. Some have almost a witco texture on parts of the wood, and some use seashells much more than wood. I think those ones above are the first ones I've seen with the little painted-on boobies. Here's a typical example of one we have...

-Randy

Just added this set to the others

I love these guys...and glad I own them now.

A couple I found at a store.

Smoking figures I got from my grandmother. Still with original boxes and with 'cigarettes' that blow smoke rings when lit.

http://www.justinbird.com

[ Edited by: gooneybird 2012-03-08 23:27 ]

Thats pretty cool! Mahalo for sharing. :)

oh awesome! love that you inherited those and smart she kept the cigarettes!

Those are all very cool, what are they called? I don't thjink I have seen them, I have a variation made out of wood but more ethnic looking....cool cool

Amy

Added these salt and pepper shakers to my collection

Need to get a new shelf to display them all I it seems!

I remembered we had a thread on these guys and since I just found another one of them today I thought I would post a photo of my updated collection .

These are so great but getting harder to find then before. Most likely because they are so fragile.

The one in my hand is the one I found today but I don't have any more room so I have to figure out a better way to display them.