Fuku means good fortune, Kuruma wheel or cart: Fuku Kuruma is fortune on wheels. A Kokeshi figure sits on a wooden axle between two wheels – ready to be set in motion. The form links the Kokeshi to the turned wooden toys from which it once emerged, and carries a wish within it: that good fortune may start rolling. Yusuke Sato realises this idea with unusual lightness. He works at Kijidokoro Sato, a workshop with over 120 years of history at the heart of the Yajiro region.
The body is pear-shaped, natural Mizuki wood as its ground, the grain softly visible. Upon it, a stylised chrysanthemum in red: pointed petals fanning upwards, green leaf lines beneath. The base is finished in yellow. The head shows a green hair crown with a red finish on top, a black fringe with red decorative blossoms beneath, side locks falling at either side. Narrow eyes, a fine smile, a calm and alert expression. The wheels are surfaces in their own right: on their outer faces the red chrysanthemum with green leaf lines appears again, framed by a broad orange-yellow ring.
Viewed from above, what remains hidden from the front becomes visible: the characteristic Rokuro-Moyo pattern on the crown – concentric circles in green and red, precisely applied. A hallmark of the Yajiro tradition.
Fuku Kuruma 福車 – Kokeshi on wheels in the Yajiro tradition
Body: natural Mizuki wood, Kiku motif in red and green, yellow base
Head: green Yajiro hair crown, black fringe with red decorative blossoms
Wheels: Kiku motif on the outer faces, orange-yellow frame, green Rokuro-Moyo lines on the treads
Hand-turned and hand-painted – by Yusuke Sato
Signed by the artist
Height: approx. 6.5 cm | Length: approx. 6.5 cm | Wheel diameter: approx. 6 cm | Wood: Mizuki (Dogwood) | Handcrafted
Yusuke Sato works in the Yajiro tradition at the long-established Kijidokoro Sato family workshop. His gradient Kokeshi introduce a distinctive idea into this inherited visual language, characterised by finely layered colours that flow gently from one tone into another.
