Kisaburo Matsumoto was born in Kumamoto in 1825. He achieved a good reputation in his neighborhood from making elaborate works in the community festival in his early years. In 1854 he produced his first show with lifelike mannequins in Osaka. It was a big surprise how his wooden figures looked like real people and it was a huge box office success. In an Iki-ningyo (lifelike mannequin) show, about 60-80 scenes from a fashionable play or well-known historical event were theatrically presented. It became a popular amusement in the late 19th century. Above all, Kisaburo Matsumoto and Kamehachi Yasumoto, who both hailed from Kumamoto City, were famed as the best Iki-ningyo makers.
Matsumoto also made the first homunculus of wood in Japan in 1872. The following year he participated in the Vienna EXPO with his wooden skeleton.
Due to its popularity as low-brow entertainment, historians have taken little account of Iki-ningyo as a subject of research. Therefore Iki-ningyo figures were scattered and lost. Some Europeans and Americans took them home out of ethnological interest or as souvenirs.