It is quite common to hear nowadays that kids are spoilt and overindulged. Things were certainly different in the past -- or were they?

"Customs of Beauties Around the Clock: Hour of the Rat" by Utamaro Kitagawa, 18th century"Gosho-Ningyo (Dolls Playing Horsey)," artist unkown, 19th century
Tokyo National Museum, Kyoto National Museum photo

An exhibition titled "Wonder and Joy -- Children in Japanese Art" at the Tokyo National Museum suggests that, although there was less consciousness of childhood as a separate state in previous ages, youngsters have always occupied a special place in Japanese hearts.

The comprehensive display has collected 177 works, ranging from Buddhist statues and picture scrolls to kimono, toys and woodblock prints.

The earliest items on display are clay tablets from the Jomon Period (ca. 10,000-300 B.C.), stamped with the impressions of children's hands and feet. It is thought that in an age of high infant mortality these tablets might have been worn as amulets to protect children from evil and disease.

In this respect, they perhaps resemble the hina ningyo dolls still displayed in many Japanese households to invite happiness and good health for young girls during the annual Hina Matsuri, culminating March 3. Hina dolls are believed to originate from nagashibina, straw or paper dolls that were rubbed on the body to absorb bad luck and then thrown into rivers or the sea.

The several examples here date from the Edo Period (1603-1867) and range from a rudimentary pair of wooden figures from the Ryukyu Islands to dolls so elaborately decorated that no one would ever throw them in the river!

While connected with children, hina dolls more truly express the hopes -- and fears -- of parents. Indeed, many of the "childish" things on display here seem intended to reflect the rite of passage from childhood to adulthood, and the subsequent injunction to put away childish things.

This can be seen in the sets of yoroi and kabuto, child-size armor and helmets for boys. Considered good-luck talismans, these military accouterments were further intended to encourage the sons of samurai to emulate their fathers' manly virtues.

For centuries, the depiction of children in Japanese art had been incidental, but during the Edo Period, a clear aesthetic of childhood developed, which is most clearly seen in ukiyo-e woodblock prints. Torii Kiyonaga (1752-1815), for example, created a colorful nishiki-e series called "Little Treasures Enjoying the Five Festivals," showing youngsters participating in various festivals, including the Hina Matsuri.

The most effective ukiyo-e pictures of children, however, are those that capture the intimate relationship between mother and child, such as "Customs of Beauties Around the Clock: Hour of the Rat" and "Mother Breast Feeding" by Utamaro Kitagawa (1753-1806), an artist better known for his sensual depictions of fashionable ladies. In the first, the mother fondly playing with her child remains oblivious to the viewer, while in the second, the intimate scale is captured in affectionate details, such as the child's tiny fingers, or the ambiguous reflection of the back of its head in a mirror.

Another example would be the appealing gosho-ningyo dolls, 19th-century figures with overlarge, smiling faces, robust limbs and animated poses that offer a refreshing contrast to the rigidity of hina dolls and capture more of the real essence of childhood.

The perfect condition of these wooden figures, painted porcelain-white with a mixture of ground oyster-shell, shows they were seldom in children's hands, but were intended to be viewed and enjoyed by adults. The dolls represent children at play, but even here, there is a sense that the childish behaviour is not without purpose: The play seems to progress from infantile crawling to increasingly adult behaviour.

This exhibition reveals the deep love that has always been felt for children. But it also shows the process by which childhood became what it is today: less an undifferentiated part of life and more of a cherished -- and indulged -- period of grace before adulthood moves in on innocence.