Doll festival

March 3 is Hinamatsuri, or Girls Day, a.k.a. Japanese Doll Festival, a.k.a. Momo no sekku (Peach Festival). It's a day to wish girls good health and future happiness, and it's customary to display dolls dressed in kimono and to offer them (the dolls, I mean) little rice cakes and other food. You might see peach blossoms with the dolls as well. In the spirit of the day, the British School in Tokyo had these set up in the lobby outside the library:


The Emperor and Empress are on the top tier, court ladies on the second tier; if there were lower tiers in this set up, you would see musicians, ministers and servants.

The dolls are wearing ancient court costumes from the Heian period (794-1185). The Empress (top right) is wearing a juuni-hitoe, a 12-layered ceremonial robe and her hairstyle is called suberakashi. She is holding a fan made of cypress.

Many Japanese families hold onto dolls and pass them down to the next generation. You are supposed to put the dolls away soon after March 3 has passed, otherwise your daughter might marry late. In ancient times the practice was to transfer your sin and misfortune to the dolls and then abandon them by tossing them in a river. Nowadays some people float paper dolls down rivers instead.