Hina doll festival

On 4th and 17th March, hubby and I went to see hina doll festival in Yurihonjo city of Akita prefecture and Sakata city of Yamagata prefecture. The Japanese doll festival hina matsuri is held on March 3rd every year. Families with daughters display a set of ornamental dolls representing the emperor and empress (dairibina), three court ladies (san-nin kanjo), five male musicians (gonin bayashi), ministers, and attendants in traditional court dress of the Heian period. The dolls are placed on stepped platforms with a red decoration sheet called a himosen. The custom of displaying dolls began during the Heian period. It was believed that the dolls possessed the power to contain evil spirits. While hina matsuri is a private display of hina dolls at homes, we visited several public displays of hina dolls some of which were antique and dated back a few hundred years.

Yurihonjo hinakaido

We went to see hina doll displays at two places in Yurihonjo city of Akita prefecture. There is a public annual traditional doll display event held in the city that has been named as Yurihonjo hinakaido, which means ‘Yurihonjo city hina doll route’. The first event was held in 2008, and since then it has been held every year. Yurihonjo hinakaido festival is coordinated by Akita prefecture Yuri regional development office. Hinakaido festival encompasses four main areas of Yurihonjo city, namely Iwaki in the north, Ouchi and Honjo in the center, and Yashima in the south. This year, hina dolls were displayed at six public exhibition halls from February 10 until April 08. These public halls are Kameda castle Sato Yasohachi art museum, Iwaki local history museum, Ouchi Dewa denshokan, Honjo kyodo shiryoukan, Shushin-kan hall in Honjo Park, and Yashima kyodo bunka hozon denshu shisetsu. In addition, machinaka hina-meguri festival takes place in more than 60 different locations within the city where visitors can follow a map and drop by in shops, hotels, a few private homes and offices, and see traditional hina doll displays. This year it was held from March 09 to March 20 in Ouchi, Honjo and Yashima, and from March 17 to April 03 in Iwaki. The hina doll displays vary greatly in size, history and style.

Shushin-kan in Honjo Park

On March 17th, hubby and I went to see the display of hina dolls at Shushin-kan in Honjo Park, which is one of the six public exhibition halls in Yurihonjo city. Honjo Park is located on the site of Honjo Castle which was built in 1613. Shushin-kan hall is located in the center of the park where we can learn about the history and culture of Honjo. The park is located about three kilometers away from our home and it took us ten minutes to reach there by our car. Several types of exquisite and beautiful hina doll sets were exhibited in one of the rooms of Shushin-kan hall. We moved inside the room in a counterclockwise direction and enjoyed seeing the antique as well as modern doll sets and paintings one at a time.

Display of hina dolls inside a room at Shushin-kan hall in Honjo Park

Display of antique hina dolls inside the room

Hubby reading some information about the displayed hina dolls

First we saw dairibina imperial hina doll set belonging to Sasaki-ke (Sasaki family) of Omote Ozaki town in Honjo city. The hina dolls were typical kokinbina dolls of Edo period. A person named Otsuchiya Hambei of Ikenohata Nakacho in Ueno was a well known wholesale dealer of hina dolls during Meiwa era (1764-1772) of Edo period. He ordered a hina doll maker named Hara Shugetsu to make these beautiful dolls. The traditional arrangement of the dolls during the Edo period had emperor doll odairisama on the right side and empress doll ohinasama on the left side from the viewer’s perspective. The eye balls of the displayed dairibina dolls were made of glass, which is one of the salient features of kokinbina that makes the dolls look real life-like. In addition, the faces of the dolls were shiny. The kimono clothes of these dolls had a lot of gold threads, colored threads, and gold brocade. This kind of kokinbina dolls are considered to be the origin of the style of present day modern gendaibina dolls.

Dairibina imperial hina doll set of Sasaki-ke

I am standing next to kokinbina dolls of Edo period

Odairisama doll of Sasaki-ke

Ohinasama doll of Sasaki-ke

Adjacent to kokinbina dolls, we saw a beautiful gendaibina doll set made during the Showa period (1926-1989). These dairibina imperial dolls have a modern style. In fact, kokinbina dolls of the later part of Edo period are considered to be the origin of the modern style gendaibina dolls. The arrangement of gendaibina dolls of the Showa period as well as the present day hina dolls has odairisama on the left side and ohinasama on the right side from the viewer’s perspective. The facial features of the displayed gendaibina dolls exhibited classical features of the traditional Kyoto styled dolls. In fact, the modern dolls reflecting Kyoto styled facial features were very popular during the Showa period.

Gendaibina doll set of Showa period

Odairisama doll

Ohinasama doll

In another corner of the room we saw colorful paintings of hina dolls that were painted by a technique known as Dimple Art. This method involves painting on large glass panels with a special paint made from recycled products. The paintings look like real stained glass. I was pleasantly surprised to know that the paint used for Dimple Art is made from recycled polyvinyl butyral (PVB) resin. Windshield of cars usually contains an interlayer of PVB between two or more layers of glass. This PVB keeps the glass layers bonded even when broken by an impact. PVB is an industrial waste and according to the Japanese laws recycling of PVB is mandatory for automobile manufacturers. Professor Takao Kimura from Utsunomiya University has been successful in recycling PVB as paint for use in Dimple Art. Very eco-friendly recycling of industrial waste. After knowing the history of Dimple Art, we were very much interested to see the paintings of hina dolls in details. There was a grand display of Dimple Art paintings of odairisama and ohinasama in one corner of the hall room. We loved viewing these beautiful paintings. The colors were so vivid, luscious, bright, and fresh.

Display of Dimple Art paintings of hina dolls in one corner of the room at Shushin-kan hall

Two Dimple Art paintings of dairibina dolls

Painting of dairibina dolls and san-nin kanjo dolls

Painting of odairisama

Painting of ohinasama

Another colorful painting of ohinasama

Akita Airport

Under the machinaka hina-meguri festival, one set of hina dolls were exhibited at the second floor of domestic terminal of Akita Airport. The exhibition was held from March 01 to March 19. On March 4th, hubby and I went to Akita Airport to travel to Tokyo as hubby had been to Thailand for a business trip the next day. I just accompanied him up to Tokyo. The displayed hina doll set at the airport was very cute and dairibina imperial dolls had modern gendaibina style. It should be noted that the economy of Japan became very strong after World War II, and families with daughters preferred to have lavish hina doll sets having many ornamental dolls for private display at home. Therefore during the postwar era along with the dolls representing dairibina imperial dolls, many other dolls like san-nin kanjo, gonin bayashi, ministers, attendants, and a variety of miniature furniture and tools are also displayed on five to seven stepped platforms covered with a red decoration sheet. The public exhibition of hina doll set at Akita Airport also had many dolls and accessories, and the doll set was displayed on a seven stepped platform.

Hina doll set displayed on a seven stepped platform at Akita Airport

Dairibina, san-nin kanjo, and gonin bayashi ornamental dolls

Odairisama doll

Ohinasama doll

Yamagata hina dolls

A trip to Yamagata prefecture is essential to experience the hina matsuri festival with the strongest vestiges of its former glory. Yamagata area has the highest concentration of publicly accessible hina displays in all of Japan. Many wealthy merchants were based in this region during Edo period and the displays are usually held in their former residences, many of which have been converted to private museums. We visited Homma Museum of Art in Sakata city.

Homma Museum of Art

In the afternoon of March 17th, we visited Homma Museum of Art in Sakata city of Yamagata prefecture. It took us about two hours to reach the museum by our car. It is a private museum that opened in 1947. It was loaned by Homma family and has exhibits that increase cultural awareness about Japan. There is a beautiful garden in the museum premises. The doll exhibits of this museum are very popular and are well known throughout Japan. This year from February 25 to April 03, various kinds of hina dolls from the initial Edo period to Meiji period and belonging to Satake-ke, Kazama-ke, Akino-ke and several other families were displayed at the museum. The exhibition consisted of a collection of 70 classic antique hina doll sets with more than 200 dolls.

Garden in front of Homma Museum of Art

Display of several antique hina dolls inside the museum

I am standing in front of a few dolls inside the museum

The main attraction of the museum this year was a pair of kyouhobina dolls. Kyouhobina dolls were initially made during Kyouho era (1716-1736) of Edo period, and this style of hina dolls became very popular during this era. It should be noted that ‘kyouhobina’ is the name of hina doll style and were made even after the era ended. The main pair of kyouhobina dolls displayed at the museum was made during the end of Edo period. Kyouhobina dolls are rather big in size as compared to other types of hina dolls. Amongst various kyouhobina dolls exhibited at this museum, the main pair of dolls was the biggest one. The height of odairisama doll was 49.8 cm and ohinasama doll was 41.8 cm. Odairisama doll looked handsome in sokutai kimono, had a sword as an accessory, and held a flat ritual baton named shaku. Ohinasama doll looked elegant in five-layered robe itsutsuginu and an exotic outermost costume karaginu kimono, and also wore a beautiful crown. Kimono sleeves of odairisama and ohinasama were straightened sideways laterally and the kimono cloth had a lot of gold material and brocade, which are the salient features of kyouhobina dolls.

I am standing next to a pair of kyouhobina dolls which were the main attraction of hina doll display this year

Odairisama doll

Ohinasama doll

We loved visiting the exhibition of various kinds of hina dolls in Yurihonjo and Sakata cities.

Parents and friends

As I wrote in the previous post, hubby and I had been to my parents’ home in India during the New Year holidays. My elder brother and his family paid a surprise visit and we had lots of fun. They returned back to their home on 4th January. On the morning of 5th January, my parents, hubby, and I went to a photo studio near parents’ home to have a professional portrait of us taken together. Although hubby and I had been to India a couple of times we did not have any formal photo of us with my parents for keepsake. So this was the first time that we all went to a photo studio together. The professional photographer was good and the session went very well. The photo came out excellent and we were happy with the outcome.

Portrait photograph of hubby and I along with my parents

Next, we had lunch at a restaurant named Shree Krishna Vegetarian Court located near my parents’ home. The restaurant was very clean and they served unique delicious dishes. We had various kinds of vegetable curry dishes, pulav, and biryani. Later my mother and hubby had a dessert named gulab jamun. The quality of the food was great and it was a nice experience.

Shree Krishna Vegetarian Court restaurant

Shree Krishna Vegetarian Court restaurant

Various vegetarian dishes we ordered

My parents having lunch

Parents busy eating

Hubby having lunch

A portion of gulab jamun

Hubby having gulab jamun

In the afternoon, we all went to a famous shopping zone street named Laxmi Road to do shopping. We bought a few presents for our relatives and friends in Japan. We bought pretty dresses for the daughters of hubby’s sister. In addition, hubby presented me a gold ring from a famous jewelry shop named Ashtekar Brothers Jewellers. In fact, hubby wished to buy a platinum ring from Japan for our fifth marriage anniversary. But somehow I feel platinum does not suit my skin tone and I prefer gold jewelry over platinum. So during this trip to India hubby bought a gold band ring for me. It is so cute.

Cute dresses for daughters of hubby’s sister

Gold band ring that hubby presented to me

By the time we finished shopping and returned back home, it was already 7 pm. After a light dinner we all retired for the day.


Next day hubby and I had severe dust allergy due to the shopping at Laxmi Road area for several hours the previous day. My eyelids were swollen and we both had running nose. In the past decade, Pune has become tremendously dusty and the air is severely polluted due to the increased vehicles plying on the roads. Every time hubby visits India, he is shocked by the complete lack of quality control of fuel of vehicles. I hope things will improve in future. Since we were not well, we decided to take rest at home.

In the afternoon my mother presented hubby with an antique brass pot called kolshi. It has been in my mother’s family for almost seventy years and has great sentimental value attached to it. It has been a memorable treasured possession of my mother for several decades. Ma, thank you very much for giving us the precious kolshi. We will take good care of it.

My mother presenting kolshi pot to hubby

Hubby happy after getting kolshi pot

Later in the evening, one of my parents’ friends along with his entire family visited us. The elder daughter of parents’ friend had been my very good friend during my high school days. Although she was two years junior to me, we usually used to spend after school hours together, either playing or watching television programs or simply chatting. Later we went to the same college and university. Last I saw her was way back in 1992. So I was really thrilled to meet her after a gap of 19 years. I met her parents and younger sister after 22 years. We were all excited and talked about various things for a long time.

Myself, my friend, and her sister in 1986

My friend and I in 2011

My friend, myself, and friend’s sister in 2011

On 7th January, hubby and I got up at 5 am and packed our baggage as we were to leave Pune in the afternoon. We hired a taxi to go up to Mumbai. My parents accompanied us and it took about 4.5 hours to reach Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport at Mumbai. My parents stayed with hubby and me for about an hour at the waiting lounge of the airport. We ate potato-stuffed paratha that my mother had made and packed in aluminum foil as evening snack. We all felt very sad and emotional while saying our goodbyes. At about 6 pm they returned back to Pune by the same hired taxi.

My parents and I at Mumbai airport

Father and hubby at the airport

Hubby having potato-stuffed paratha

Our return flight to Japan was via Hong Kong, and we still had a few hours before the flight left. At about 9 pm, my friend from college and university days came to meet us at the airport. Thanks to Facebook social network service, we recently got in touch after a gap of 20 years! It was very nice to meet my friend and her husband. There was so much to talk about but unfortunately we could talk only for an hour as it was time for us to enter the departure terminal of the airport. After saying our goodbyes, hubby and I went to the Cathay Pacific check-in counters.

My friend and I along with several other classmates during Masters Degree course in 1989

My friend and I in 2011

My friend, myself, and friend’s husband

My friend’s husband and my hubby

After getting our boarding passes and checking in our baggage we went to a restaurant and had a light dinner. The flight left the airport at about 01.30 am on 8th January and it took about six hours to reach Hong Kong International Airport. We had a stopover of about five hours at Hong Kong. I moved around inside the airport but hubby just dozed off on a chair near the boarding gate of Cathay Pacific flight bound for Narita. Our flight left Hong Kong at about 15.20 pm (local time) and reached Narita International Airport at 20.30 pm. After finishing the immigration procedures, we went a hotel near the airport for an overnight stay. Next afternoon we took a domestic flight to Akita and reached our home at about 3 pm. That day the temperature in Akita was 35 degrees Celsius lower than Mumbai, and hubby and I felt so cold.

Hubby relaxing at the boarding area inside the airport at Hong Kong

Snow in Akita

It was really nice to meet my parents and friends in India. Now we are back to the usual routine in Akita.