, also called Doll's Day or Girls' Day, is an annual festival in Japan (but not a national holiday), celebrated on 3March of each year. Platforms covered with a red carpet material are used to display a set of representing the emperor, empress, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress of the Heian period.
Customs
is one of the that are held on auspicious dates of the Lunisolar 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 , 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 is the display of seated female and male dolls (the and ), which represent a Heian period wedding, The dolls are usually seated on red cloth, and may be as simple as pictures or folded paper dolls, or as intricate as carved three-dimensional dolls. More elaborate displays will include a multi-tiered 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 . Traditionally, the dolls were supposed to be put away by the day after , 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.
, traditional decoration for , are lengths of coloured cords (usually in red), usually featuring decorations of miniature baby-dolls, which were originally made from leftover kimono silk (so the idea of repurposing fabric scraps is central to this craft; it is a great activity for using up leftover materials). are not limited to featuring miniature baby-dolls, but also flowers (i.e., camellia flower, etc.), shells, balls, colourful triangles to represent mountains (such as Mount Fuji, etc.), etc., and with tassels at the bottom.
Origin
thumb|right|[[Empress Kōjun attending the festival with her daughters, c. 1940]]
It is said that the first time dolls were shown in the manner they are now as part of the Peach Festival was when the young princess Meisho succeeded to the throne of her abdicating father, Emperor Go-Mizunoo, in 1629. Because empresses regnant in Japan at the time were not allowed to get married, Meisho's mother, Tokugawa Masako, created a doll arrangement showing Meisho blissfully wedded. then officially became the name of the festival in 1687. Doll-makers began making elaborate dolls for the festival (some growing as tall as high before laws were passed restricting their size). Over time, the evolved to include fifteen dolls and accessories. As dolls became more expensive, tiers were added to the so that the expensive ones could be placed out of the reach of young children. The layer of covering is called or simply , a red carpet with rainbow stripes at the bottom. The description that follows is for a complete set.
<gallery class="center" style="line-height:130%" widths="180" heights="180">
File:Me-bina-ETHAS 020104-P8190705-gradient.jpg|18th-century , Empress doll, on display at Musée d'ethnographie de Genève
File:O-bina-ETHAS 020105-P8190707-gradient.jpg|18th century , Emperor doll, on display at Musée d'ethnographie de Genève
File:Hinamatsuri store display.jpg| store display in Seattle, Washington, featuring all 7 tiers.
File:HinaDolls-Emperor-Empress-topplatform2011.jpg|An Emperor doll with an Empress doll, in front of a gold screen. The optional lampstands are also partially visible.
File:Hinamatsuri - Kanagawa - 2026 March 1.webm|thumbtime=14|(video) A seven platform doll set next to a three platform set.
File:Kanzo-Yashiki_Tsurushibina.A.JPG| is a variation of the traditional dolls (Kanzo-Yashiki, Kōshū, Yamanashi Prefecture).
</gallery>
First, top platform
The top tier holds two dolls, known as . The word means "imperial palace". These are the holding a and holding a fan. The pair are also known as and (lord and princess) or and (honored palace official and honored doll). Although they are sometimes referred to as the Emperor and Empress, they only represent the positions and not particular individuals themselves (with the exception of some dolls from the Meiji Era that actually depict Emperor Meiji and Empress Shōken). The two are usually placed in front of a gold folding screen and placed beside green Japanese garden trees. and the paper or silk lanterns that are known as , which are usually decorated with cherry or plum blossom patterns.
Complete sets would include accessories placed between the two figures, known as , composing of two vases of artificial .
Generally speaking, the Kansai style arrangement has the male on the right, while Kantō style arrangements have him on the left (from the viewer's perspective).
- , seated,
- , standing,
- , standing,
- , or , seated,
- , holding a , standing.
There are ancient sets with seven or ten musicians and at least one with female musicians.