1 post tagged “hina-ningyo”

March 3rd is Girl's Day in Japan, and Mitsuki celebrated it here with her Hina-ningyo (Hina doll collection).

Mitsuki's Obaa-chama and Ojii-chama sent her this fantastic Hina-ningyo after she was born. The whole collection came in no less than 5 large boxes. How these delicate figurines made it overseas is a testament to careful packing. And I do mean careful. Each figure - and there are a total of 15 - was well protected. The head was bound by: one, a small square of paper to cover the face; two, a larger square of paper to serve as a hood; and three, one strip of paper to tie it all together. Two to five figures would go in each box and each person was careful immobilized by large, carefully bunched-up pieces of butcher paper. A set of gloves and two feather dusters came with the set, for the oils of your fingers is said to damage the dolls.

And of course, each figure has its own accesories (in themselves detailed) that represents each person's function - a gold ladle for tea; drums of different sizes; a flute; bows, arrows and a katana; brooms and dusters. The hardest of all accesories to install are the hats - each has a taught elastic band and it's difficult to set it carefully over the very real, slick and shiny hair.

Unpacking and packing up is a process. I had to take pictures, drawn diagrams and write notes of how the contents of each box is configured. Not to mention how the smaller boxes themselves are configured within the 5 containing boxes. But inbetween, when the whole collection is up, it's quite a sight.

For details of what each doll means, read this great PingMag article, complete with pictures. (The #2 comment at the bottom is me.)

Here are my Flickr photos.

Happy Girl's Day, Mitsuki-chan!