✳︎Title: China "Ni Wa Wa" (泥娃娃) Old Chinese Fertility Charm Dolls ✳︎Publication Date: 1974 ✳︎Publisher: Tenri University Attached Reference Museum, Ethnology Department ✳︎Number of Pages: 23p ✳︎Size: A5 This is a catalog of Chinese clay dolls titled "Ni Wa Wa (泥娃娃), Old Chinese Fertility Charm Dolls." It is the catalog for the "Ni Wa Wa Exhibition" held at the Tenri Gallery for three months from November 1974. The catalog consists of a 4-page commentary and 19 pages of photographs, including photos of 145 dolls. In 1974, Mao Zedong was still alive (died in 1976), and it was the height of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). In China, clay dolls like Ni Wa Wa were not only not attracting interest, but were considered something to be destroyed. "Times have already changed. Fertility charm dolls, such as these, no longer exist in today's China," it states. Ni Wa Wa were clay dolls once made throughout China. Childless couples would dedicate Ni Wa Wa to temples and Taoist temples (道観) to pray for children, especially boys. Women were desperate, as divorce was common for those who couldn't conceive. In any case, these clay dolls, made by ordinary people and not considered fine art, have a certain power and convey a sense of people's breath, which seems to be a universal quality, not just in China.