Many families with girls display special dolls for this festival & dedicate peach blossoms to them. They are usually arranged on a five or seven-tiered stand covered with a red carpet because odd numbers are considered to be lucky numbers. This is the set of the dolls displayed at Kyoto Brighton Hotel.
At the top are the Emperor and Empress. The next step contains three court ladies followed by five musicians, two ministers, and three servants ending the bottom row in a five-tiered display. (In these photos, it's hard to see the ministers though...)
There are also small pieces of furniture, small meal dishes, and other things.
However, these days many families in Japan live in small apartments or houses, and they don't have enough space to display a huge doll set. So it's more common now to display the Emperor and Empress only.
These dolls were made by my friend. Can you guess what they are? Eggs!!! She is so clever & artistic ! And the dolls are so cute. ;D It's fun to look for many, different Hina dolls during this season in Japan. Each of them has a different & unique face.
Another name for this festival is Peach Festival (Momo no sekku) because of the peach blossom season on the old lunar calendar. So we see peach flowers everywhere around the this festival, and feel the spring is coming.
The origin of Hinamatsuri is an ancient Chinese practice in which the sin of the body and misfortune are transferred to a doll, and then removed by abandoning the doll on a river. Though the festival was originally for both boys and girls, it is now just for girls. The idea of dolls must have matched of lovely girls.
They are the sweets surved at my tea ceremony school last week. The mottif is the dolls (the Emperor & Empress)!
And the mottif of diamond-shaped sugar sweets is "Hishimochi" which you can see in the first photo. They are colored rice cakes, and all of the colors, red (or pink), white and green have meanins. The red is for chasing evil spirits away, the white is for purity, and the green is for health or long life.
Well, this festival is for YOUNG girls, but who cares? Happy Girls Day for GIRLS in all over the world!! And boys! Don't worry we have Boys Festival on May 5th. (3/3 and 5/5... you know how much we the Japanese love auspicious stuffs!)
9 comments:
Your article was more than great!
I learnt a lot, too! I couldn't find those two ministers, either.
It is so nice to hand down our tradition all the way, isn't it?
I also decorated hina doll which might be approximately 40years old☆彡
When I was in kindergarten my parents bought these for me.
Happy hinamatsuri! Yeah!!
♣Yoko san
Thank you so much for your comment & saying this article was good!
Yes, I do agree with you. I think it's important & nice to cherish our tradition.
Wow, you did a big work!! I can't imagine decorating all the dolls by myself.
Well, I'm a second daughter and my parents didn't boutht them for me though...(・ε・)
Anyway, Happy Hinamaturi~~~♬
very very nice information and photos!
i could feel your "kokoro" in your words and images.
i hope to visit Kyoto for Hanatoro in Higashiyama in a few weeks.
Happy Hinamatsuri Day. Happy Everyday.
♣Tonykaku san
Thanks for your comment! :D
I'm glad you liked this article and felt my kokoro from it♪
And thank you for introducing it on your blog. (Don't you accept any comments on your blog?)
Oh, by the way, I'm originally from where Fukuroda Waterfalls are!! ;P
dear Mariko-san,
about 15 years ago (むかしむかしあるところ）i stayed in Yuki-shi in Ibaraki. i was staying with friends and working in their family tofu-ya.
also, i rode my bicycle to ... Sapporo from Yuki-shi.
i wish i knew about Fukuroda waterfalls back then.
見たことがある？
tonikaku, it must be wonderful to live in Kyoto.
about 5 years ago, i stayed for one month in Kyoto for... 秋だから。
if you want to comment on my blog, i prefer email...i have so much free time now. i love to share stories and photos about Japan, music and travels.
それではお大事に、
kevin (tonykaku or tony is actually the name of my nuigurumi no risu) : )
ps do you think the sakura will bloom early this year?
Konnichiwa to Kyoto and Mariko!
I found your blog after looking at TonyKaku's blog. I love Japan, although I have never visited personally, I have a few Japanese friends, who stayed with us, when studying English in the UK. I now live abroad in Lapland, Finland.
I remember Toshi telling me all about this festival, but it was lovely read about it again and see so many pictures! LOVELY!
I would like to 'Follow' your blog and as I said to Tony, could you add the Follow gadget to your site? It helps connect likeminded goups of people together. You can add it via the blogs layout tab.
With love from snowy Lapland, Michelle, The Arctic Rainbow
www.arcticrainbow.blogspot.com
arcticrainbow @gmail.com
♣Kevin san
Oh, my godness!! Yuki city to Hokkaido!? I can't imagine it!
Sure, saw it! 私は袋田の滝を見たことがあります。 I'm from Fukushima pref. and my aunt lives in Ibaraki. So on the way to her house, my family stopped at 袋田の滝 several times♪
Yes, I've heared this year sakura would be in full-bloom earlier than usual. But at this point, it's hard to tell you certain information...
♣Michelle san
Thanks a lot for posting a comment! I did add Followers on my blog. Is this OK?
Lapland!! That's one of the places I'd love to visit in my life. When I was a kid, I watched a cartoon of 'Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige.' In this story, a boy called Nils traveled to Lapland. I saw your blog, and the photos are so beautiful♡♥♡
I try to update my blog more frequently...I've not been a good blogger, but you and Kevin gave me motivation. Ha-ha.
Thanks again & talk to you soon later♪ -Mariko
Well this is my first visit. Great stuff over the blog. Illustration has something special and I think we can't avoid this kind of initiative.
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