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Small and Pretty: Japanese Hina Dolls
| Article
# : |
19757 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
3 / 1991 |
2,967 Words |
| Author
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Masako Katoh
Masako Katoh is associate professor of linguistics at Japan
Women's University. |
In the weeks before March 3, dolls priced from several hundred thousand to a million yen (roughly $7,000) fill sales displays in department stores and doll makers’ shops throughout Japan. The sales anticipate one of Japan's most ancient traditions, the Hina Matsuri (Hina Doll Festival), also known as Girls' Day.
The celebration affirms the unique bond between mother and daughter and the continuity and integrity of Japan's cultural heritage. Yet in the display of dolls are blended elements of prehistoric symbols and the ancient Chinese calendar.
As Hina Matsuri approaches, the best room (or a reception room called O-zashiki) in a typical Japanese household is occupied by a set of Hina-ningyo (Hina dolls--the Japanese world for doll is ningyo. Certain types of ningyo are also called Hina or Hina-ningyo Hina means something small and pretty). Hina dolls are appreciated as objects of aesthetic beauty that mirror Japan's cultural history. (The exclusive use of the doll as a child's toy is quite a modern development.)
Beautifully dressed in traditional kimonos, the dolls may be displayed up to two weeks before the day of the Hina Matsuri celebration. Mother and the daughter enjoy themselves together in the annual ritual of carefully taking the dolls and their accessories out of their cases. Indeed, it seems that at the moment a Hina doll comes out of the box, the ritual of Hina Matsuri actually commences. In some homes, girls may invite friends to celebrate the festival together: They sit and play in front of the O-Hina-sama (polite but popular name for Hina dolls) as girls and boys used to play the Hina-asobi (doll game) during the Heian period (794-1185), when evidence suggests the first use of dolls as playthings by the children of Japanese nobility.
But great differences exist between the Hina-asobi of the Heian period and the play of the present day. The dolls used in the Hina-asobi during the Heian period were very simple, made of paper or plain cloth and shaped to look like little boys or girls. Children leaned how to make Hina themselves, and the Hina were sometimes accompanied by toys representing anything from a palace and a carriage to tableware such as dishes and chopsticks. Children enjoyed playing as hosts and guests, now giving a dinner to their dolls and now ushering their dolls in tot the interior of the palace.
Today, girls won't hug, touch, or even fiddle with their dolls. Hina-ningyo and their accessories are
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