My blog post yeterday was about March 3 being special for girls in Japan called Girls' Day (or Dolls' Day).  Today I want to reflect on how this tradition got started.

I knew it had something to do with a ritual called nagashi-bina.  This custom has practically vanished now but, in some parts of Japan, people still float paper-and-straw dolls on a river on March 3.  The idea is that people wish dolls would take away troubles and bad luck.  I wanted to know more about it, so I turned to internet (It makes our life so much easier!).

According to a Japanese doll artist, Harakoushu, the origin of Hinamatsuri goes back to the Heian era (more than 1,000 years ago).  Back then, doll playing was popular among women and children in the court.  As a proof, dolls are often mentioned in The Tale of Genji, a novel written 1,000 years ago by Lady Murasaki.

The artist adds that "people of that era used to perform a ritual of purification, wishing good health, on the day of Mi (snake) at the beginning of March.  They pray to the god in the universe, offering foods, entrusting misfortune and unlucky affairs to dolls, and throwing the dolls into a river or the sea, by inviting Onmyoji (the person who tells the fortune regarding astronomy, geographical features, and human beings)."

As Henry James said, it does take an endless amount of history to make even a little tradition.


River Cruise, Kyoto, Japan VIII

A larger image of this painting is available on request.

Media: Original watercolor on paper
Image Size: 8.25 x 11.5 in (21 x 29 cm)
Purchase: Sold

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