Yurihonjo hinakaido doll festival - part 2

As I wrote in the previous post, on March 07 hubby and I went to see the festival called Yurihonjo hinakaido. The festival is a public annual traditional display of dolls and is held in five public exhibition halls as well as fifty different locations within Yurihonjo city of Akita prefecture. While the Japanese doll festival (hina matsuri) that is held on March 03 every year is a private display of a set of ornamental hina dolls at homes of families with daughters, the hinakaido festival is a public display of antique hina dolls that date back at least several hundred years. In the previous post I wrote about the hina doll displays in Ouchi denshokan and Honjo kyodo shiryoukan. Today I will write about our visit to the Kameda castle Sato Yasohachi art museum where exquisite hina dolls were displayed in three exhibition halls.

Kameda castle Sato Yasohachi art museum
First let me briefly explain about the history of Kameda castle and Sato Yasohachi art museum.

Kameda castle: Kameda castle was built by the Iwaki feudal clan, who were originally from Shinshu province (present day Nagano prefecture). In 1623, the third shogun of Edo period, Tokugawa Iemitsu, ordered Iwaki clan to relocate to Kameda region in Dewa province (present day Akita and Yamagata prefecture). Subsequently, Kameda han domain was ruled for the entirety of its history by the Iwaki clan. Kameda castle was the castle of the Iwaki clan rulers. Unfortunately, now no traces of the castle remains and what we see today is only a reproduction work of the original castle.

Reproduction of Kameda castle


Sato Yasohachi art museum: This museum located in Kameda castle exhibits collection of calligraphy, Japanese traditional paintings, crafts and ceramics, which were donated by Mr. Yasohachi Sato. The Sato family lived in Yurihonjo city and the last Yasohachi died in 1998. During the annual hinakaido festival from February 07 until April 19, some of the exhibition halls are used for hina doll displays. The museum seemed to be full of hina doll sets.

Entrance of Sato Yasohachi art museum

An exhibition hall in the museum

Hubby standing in front of kasafuku (parasol with hanging gotenmari balls)

Hina dolls were displayed in the first, third, and fourth exhibition halls of the museum.
First exhibition hall: Very old hina dolls of the prosperous castle town of Kameda region were displayed in this hall. Various types of hina dolls like kokinbina, kyohobina, and keshibina were exhibited. There were about 30 such hina dolls sets. It was really nice to see the display of so many antique exquisite dolls.

Display of hina dolls in first exhibition hall

Display of hina dolls at the center of the exhibition hall

Hubby posing in front of gojunoto (five-storied pagoda)

Kameda han domain feudal lord presented many hina doll sets and related accessories to the villagers, fishermen, and farmers who lived in Kameda town in Iwaki. There was a grand display of one such hina doll set belonging to Kato family house.

Hina doll set of Kato family house

Several such hina doll sets presented by Kameda han domain feudal lord to the commoners were on display.

Hina doll sets presented by Kameda han domain feudal lord to the commoners

On one side of the hall, a few centuries old traditional hina doll sets of several families of Yurihonjo area were displayed.

Old traditional hina doll sets of Yurihonjo area

Third exhibition hall: In this hall also, various hina doll sets of many old houses of the Kameda castle town were displayed. Big kyohobina dolls and small-faced keshibina dolls were exhibited. These hina dolls were very old and dated back several hundred years.

Display of very old hina doll sets

In this hall various types of oshiebina (washi paper type) dolls were also displayed. In fact, this year many oshiebina dolls were exhibited.

Display of a few oshiebina hina doll sets

Fourth exhibition hall: In this hall, a large variety of cute faced Yabase tsuchi-ningyo (clay dolls) and oshiebina were exhibited.

Display of a few tsuchi-ningyo hina doll sets

Display of a few oshiebina hina doll sets


Hubby and I enjoyed seeing so many antiques hina doll sets. I love hina dolls.