Generations Rabbit Hole

The first image that popped into my head for the Generations challenge was that of Russian Nesting Dolls. For me, it visually portrays the prompt....all of those women who gave birth to each of the subsequent generations, going way, way back. There's been a renewed interest in our family genealogy this year and it has me thinking about all of those generations that came before us.

So, I thought I would see what nesting dolls are all about. It turns out that they are probably Japanese in origin and only came to Russia in the late 19th century. The story goes a Japanese gentleman brought a figure of Fukurokuju (one of the seven lucky gods), with 4 students nested inside, to the shop of a Russian toy maker, Savva Mamontov. His artists created the first Matryoshka, pictured below, which traditionally are women dressed in traditional Russian costume.

As a child, I was fascinated by these dolls - and now I see I was not alone in that fascination. I found a great, photo rich, history of nesting dolls here. Not sure how I missed hearing about this event - an exhibit of Giant Matryoshka Dolls in Paris in 2010!

....and the rabbit hole gets deeper

Pantone Matryoshka by Yaroslav Rassadin

an interesting interpretation with Totoro, nesting doll and tattoo...

and then there is this cleverness.......

found here

food for thought :)