What is Hinamatsuri?
Hinamatsuri is a Japanese holiday celebrated on March 3rd and is one of the five seasonal festivals in Japan. It is also known as Doll’s day or Girl’s day and the holiday is meant to celebrate the health and happiness of female children in Japan.
Hina Dolls
Before Hinamatsuri on March 3rd, parents make sure that their girls have a set of the main Hinamatsuri dolls (hinaningyou) consisting of a male (obina 男雛) and female doll (mebina 女雛) which signifies the empress and emperor of Japan wearing traditional clothing from the Heian period. These dolls would then be displayed on a platform called hinadan.
As these dolls are typically handmade with care from specialists, their prices can range from a thousand to tens of thousands of dollars. Due to the expensive costs, Hinamatsuri dolls are also handed down as heirlooms. A set of hina dolls can have multiple dolls on different platforms. The dolls signifying the highest hierarchy like the emperor and empress would be at the very top of the platform but this placement can actually vary depending on the different region you are from.
From the bottom to the top, the very bottom 5th tier are the servants, on the 4th tier are the ministers and in the middle are hishi mochi, on the 3rd tier are the court musicians, on the 2nd tier are the court ladies, and at the 1st tier is the emperor and the empress.
Why is it celebrated?
In the Nara period (CE 710 to 794), the court had a purification ceremony of transferring impure thoughts and bad luck onto paper dolls. They would then send them down the river in March. This was first only practiced with royalties but eventually spread down to the general public. Proper dolls were made for the occasion in the 1600s. As it was a waste to just throw the dolls down the river, they started displaying them. The display of the dolls were historically put away right after the celebration of the holiday or else the girls would be said to have bad marriage luck. In the past, these dolls were used as toys but are now most commonly seen being displayed instead.
Hinamatsuri dishes
Some dishes eaten on Hinamatsuri are chirashi sushi (a vinegared rice bowl dish with seafood and vegetable toppings), hamaguri no osuimono (clam soup), hishi mochi (rice cakes in the shape of water chestnut leaves) in three colors: pink (sakura), white (winter), and green (grass), hina arare (sugar coated rice crackers), and toukashu shirozake (sweet rice wine with floating peach blossom petals).
(hamaguri no osuimono)
(chirashi sushi)
(Hinamatsuri dishes)
(hishi mochi)
(hina arare)
(toukashu shirozake)
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