The Feast of Dolls: Hinamatsuri or Doll's Day

      O-Ku-San was most tremendously excited, for today was the Feast of Dolls, one of the many great annual festivals of Japan. She was the prettiest little girl that ever you saw, so exactly like her laughing young mother that, when you looked first at one and then at the other, you might easily have thought that you were looking at the same person, only one was very little and the other a good deal bigger.

      All the Japanese girls, even when they are fully grown, are much smaller than our Western ladies, so you may suppose that O-Ku-San looked very small indeed, for she was only six years old. This morning she had awakened very early, for the maidservants are always stirring very soon after it is light, and all the houses have thin paper walls, because of the earthquakes. She wanted to get up at once and begin the wonderful day, but she had to lie quite still and listen to the birds singing until the shutters on the outside of the verandah were opened and let in the sunshine. Great preparations have to be made for this Feast of Dolls, and 0-ku-San wanted to be in it all and see everything that was to be seen; so, naturally, she was very impatient to get to the brass basin at the corner of the verandah and be washed.

      But to return to the Feast of Dolls. First of all, a platform is prepared (very often in the form of several steps), and covered with red or some other brightly colored cloth. On this the ancestral dolls are set out in great state after they have been brought from their place of safety among the other family valuables, for the Japanese set great store by these dolls, and would not sell them for a very large sum of money. Numbers of them are hundreds of years old, and, of course, form a most interesting historical record of the dress and customs of the country in bygone days.

      Often an Emperor, or Empress, or other famous personage is represented, and these dolls have to be treated in accordance with their rank. A little bowl of sake, which was brewed for the feast, is set before each one in its special pot, together with rice and numerous other Japanese dainties. O-Ku-San was in the wildest state of excitement when she saw the dolls, all set out and looking so prim and stately. And what a contrast they presented, from the very oldest of all right down to the newest and most modern in up-to-date clothes!

      All the little girls gazed and gazed, because, of course, they were not allowed to play with these ancestral dolls‚ they are only to be looked at and admired. If you were staying in Japan, and were quite friendly with a family, you would be gladly welcomed, with much ceremony and laughter, to their Feast of Dolls, and be taken in and shown their Dolly Exhibition with great pride. To hear their merry laughter you would think they were the most care-free and most light-hearted folk in all the wide world.

      The Feast of Dolls itself only lasts for one day, but the curious mixture of old and modern dolls remains on exhibition for a week; then they are carefully packed away and taken to the strong room or box, where they remain for another twelve months, awaiting the return of the feast ere they again see the light of day. These dolls, as I said, are never played with, but O-Ku-San and all the other Japanese girls do have very wonderful dolls. These dolls are exactly like their little mistresses, and, of course, always wear the fancy kimonos that look so different to us.

      While they are children, the Japanese girls all wear trousers, just as if they were boys, but when they begin to grow up, these are put away and a skirt, something like that which the English girl wears, is used instead; so that you can always tell if the girl dollies are supposed to be young or older, by whether they wear trousers or skirts. 

About The Feast of Dolls.