雛祭

About this photo

This photo shows a tatami room decorated with hina dolls and their miniature furnishings. It appears in Nihon Fukei Fuzoku Shashincho (Photo Album of Japanese Scenery and Customs), published in 1910, where the English caption describes them as dolls and toys displayed for the girls' festival in March. Where it was taken is unknown.

The Doll Festival (Hinamatsuri) is said to have grown out of two customs: purifying oneself in a river on Joshi, a seasonal festival that came from China, and transferring impurities to hitogata, human figures of grass or paper, and setting them adrift in rivers or the sea. Children of Heian-period nobles played with paper dolls in a game called hiina asobi. Displaying dolls to celebrate became widespread in the Edo period, and the tiered stands for the dolls gained more steps over time, reaching as many as seven or eight tiers by the end of the Edo period.

When Japan adopted a new calendar in the Meiji era, celebrating on March 3 of the new calendar became the norm. Many homes still display hina dolls for Momo no Sekku, the Peach Festival, and some places, such as Mochigase-cho in Tottori City, still keep up nagashi-bina, setting dolls afloat on a river.

Glossary