Hina Matsuri

My Student Miyoko's hina display

March 3rd is a Japanese tradition known as the doll festival (hina matsuri). This website says that girl's day is no longer celebrated, but I had thought they were both celebrated together. My impression is that the day is to celebrate the families' daughters life and wish for good luck and happiness, as this website suggests. The truth must lie somewhere between the two websites. It is traditional to drink a sweet immature (meaing it is not alcohalic) sake called amazake, and eating chirashi sushi. The dolls are layed out in 7 layers, the dolls at the top are of the highest caste (meaning the Emperor) and each level down represents a class lower. An interesting superstition is that if the display is not taken down on the 4th of March the daughter of the family will never get married! Makes me think back to my youth when we would leave our Christmas tree up well into February.

Last year, my student Miyoko showed me her display after our class one day, that is the picture at the top. Today in my private lesson my students Kazuo and Atsuko showed me their display;


Sorry the pictures are so small, I took them with my phone! I understand this tradition is becoming less commonly followed in Japan, and it's a shame- it's these little culture points that make living here so unique and interesting!
My students also had this old figurine of a geisha that I thought was quite interesting;


Oh- off topic, there was a helpful comment in one of my old topics about a shrine that I checked out near my home one day! Thanks a lot to Josh for the great link and the interesting tofu drink link!