Hinamatsuri


Hinamatsuri, also called Doll's Day or Girls' Day, is a special day in Japan. Celebrated on 3March of each year, platforms covered with a red carpet-material are used to display a set of ornamental dolls representing the Emperor, Empress, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress of the Heian period.

Customs

Hinamatsuri is one of the five seasonal festivals that are held on auspicious dates of the Chinese calendar: the first day of the first month, the third day of the third month, and so on. After the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, these were fixed on 1January, 3March, 5May, 7July, and 9September. The festival was traditionally known as the Peach Festival, as peach trees typically began to flower around this time. Although this is no longer true since the shift to Gregorian dates, the name remains and peaches are still symbolic of the festival.
The primary aspect of Hinamatsuri is the display of seated male and female dolls, usually on red cloth. These may be as simple as pictures or folded paper, or intricately carved three-dimensional dolls. More elaborate displays will include a multi-tiered doll stand of dolls that represent ladies of the court, musicians, and other attendants, with all sorts of accoutrements. The entire set of dolls and accessories is called the. The number of tiers and dolls a family may have depends on their budget.
Families normally ensure that girls have a set of the two main dolls before their first Hinamatsuri. The dolls are usually fairly expensive and may be handed down from older generations as heirlooms. The hinakazari spends most of the year in storage, and girls and their mothers begin setting up the display a few days before 3March. Traditionally, the dolls were supposed to be put away by the day after Hinamatsuri, the superstition being that leaving the dolls any longer will result in a late marriage for the daughter, but some families may leave them up for the entire month of March. Practically speaking, the encouragement to put everything away quickly is to avoid the rainy season and humidity that typically follow Hinamatsuri. Historically, the dolls were used as toys, but in modern times they are intended for display only. The display of dolls usually discontinues when the girls reach 10 years old.
During Hinamatsuri and the preceding days, girls hold parties with their friends. Typical foods include , , , , and . The customary drink is , also called a non-alcoholic sake.
Nagashi-bina ceremonies are held around the country, where participants make dolls out of paper or straw and send them on a boat down a river, carrying one's impurities and sin with them. Some locations, such as at the Nagashibina Doll Museum in Tottori City, still follow the lunisolar calendar instead of doing it on 3March.

Placement

The actual placement order of the dolls from left to right varies according to family tradition and location, but the order of dolls per level is the same. The layer of covering is called dankake or simply hi-mōsen, a red carpet with rainbow stripes at the bottom. The description that follows is for a complete set.

First, top platform

The top tier holds two dolls, known as imperial dolls. The words dairi means "imperial palace". These are the obina holding a ritual baton and mebina holding a fan. The pair are also known as and or and . Although they are sometimes referred to as the Emperor and Empress, they only represent the positions and not the actual individuals themselves. The two are usually placed in front of a gold folding screen and placed beside green Japanese garden trees.
Optional are the two lampstands, called bonbori, and the paper or silk lanterns that are known as hibukuro, which are usually decorated with cherry or plum blossom patterns.
Complete sets would include accessories placed between the two figures, known as sanbō kazari, composing of two vases of artificial peach branches.
Generally speaking, the Kansai style arrangement has the male on the right, while Kantō style arrangements have him on the left.

Second platform

The second tier holds three court ladies who serve sake to the male and female dolls. Two of them are standing with serving utensils, one with a long handle and the other with a short one. The third, placed in the middle, holds a small table and may be standing or sitting/kneeling.
Accessories placed between the ladies are, stands with round table-tops for seasonal sweets, excluding hishi mochi.

Third platform

The third tier holds five male musicians. Each holds a musical instrument except the singer, who holds a fan:
  1. Small drum, seated,
  2. Large drum, standing,
  3. Hand drum, standing,
  4. Flute, or, seated,
  5. Singer, holding a folding fan, standing.
There are ancient sets with seven or ten musicians, and at least one with female musicians.

Fourth platform

Two ministers may be displayed on the fourth tier. These may be the emperor's bodyguards, or administrators in Kyoto: the Minister of the Right and the Minister of the Left. Both are sometimes equipped with bows and arrows. When representing the ministers, the Minister of the Right is depicted as a young person, while the Minister of the Left is older because that position was the more senior of the two. Also, because the dolls are placed in positions relative to each other, the Minister of the Right will be on "stage right" and the Minister of the Left will be on the other side.
Between the two figures are covered bowl tables, also referred to as, as well as diamond-shaped stands bearing diamond-shaped hishi mochi.
Just below the ministers: on the rightmost, a mandarin orange tree, and on the leftmost, a cherry blossom tree.

Fifth platform

The fifth tier, between the plants, holds three helpers or protectors of the Emperor and Empress:
  1. Crying drinker,
  2. Angry drinker, and
  3. Laughing drinker

    Other platforms

On the sixth and seventh tiers, a variety of miniature furniture, tools, carriages, etc., are displayed.

Sixth platform

These are items used within the palatial residence.
These are items used when away from the palatial residence.
The earliest record of displaying the dolls as part of the Peach Festival comes from 1625, for Emperor Go-Mizunoo's daughter Oki-ko. Imperial court ladies set up equipment for her to engage in doll play. After Oki-ko succeeded her father as the Empress Meishō, Hinamatsuri legally became the name of the holiday in 1687. Doll-makers began making elaborate dolls for the festival and over time, the hinazakari evolved to include fifteen dolls and their accessories. As dolls became more expensive, tiers were added to the hinadan so that the expensive ones could be placed out of the reach of young children.
During the Meiji period as Japan began to modernize and the emperor was restored to power, Hinamatsuri was deprecated in favor of new holidays that focused on the emperor's supposed bond with the nation, but it was revived. By focusing on marriage and families, it represented Japanese hopes and values, and as the dolls were said to represent the emperor and empress, it also fostered respect for the throne. The holiday then spread to other countries via the Japanese diaspora, although it remains confined to immigrant Japanese communities and their descendants.