Girly Flower Fun

In honor of Girls Day (especially since it isn't a National Holiday like Boys Day on 5/5!), we made special Hina Matsuri arrangements this week in ikebana class. I liked the arrangement because it is colorful and feels springy, it was easy to make and everything carries a special symbolism.

To begin with, we used peach blossoms. As the flower most associated with the holiday, using the pink blossoms made a lot of sense. Here, we used two clusters of branches - a tall set on the left representing the male doll, Emperor or O-dairi-sama and a shorter set on the right representing the female doll, Empress or O-hina-sama.

Two pink sweet peas symbolized the O-hina-sama's feminine kimono while the three purple sweet peas represented the O-dairi-sama's masculine kimono. This symbolism seemed especially apt to me since it matched with tea ceremony where women use red fukusa (silk cloth) and men use purple fukusa.

Using origami adornments, we gave the O-hina-sama an open fan and the O-dairi-sama a folded fan similar to the always-folded fan in tea ceremony that shows respect and politeness and represents being a guest. Neither ikebana-sensei nor any of my fellow students could remember the name of this ceremonial item. If, for some reason, you know what it's called, please clue me in. :)

The three ranunculus (red flowers) in the front represented the three maids/court maidens that serve the O-dairi-sama and the O-hina-sama.

The rape blossoms (yellow flowers) were placed on both sides to represent bonbori - special lights that usually have painted shades. We also added origami balloons to represent these.

Then we added the rape blossom leaves and other feathery greenery just to even things out at the bottom of the arrangement.

Happy Girls Day!

Happy Girls Day everyone!

Here in Japan, we celebrate Hina Matsuri/Girls Day (also known as Dolls Festival), on March 3rd.

The most obvious thing that I've noticed about the holiday is that putting dolls out for display on a tiered staircase-like stand is common. The displays are in people's houses as well as in some stores/businesses. They are meant to protect the future health and happiness of the family's daughters. The top row of these displays (regardless of whether they are 1, 3, 5 or 7 tiers tall) always has an Emperor and Empress doll on a red carpet in front of a gold screen. Our landlords gave us this awesome origami display for Hina-matsuri. Sweet!

My ikebana sensei mentioned that peach blossoms are traditionally associated with Girls Day as are the colors red and white. There are also special Girls Day sweets - mostly diamond shaped mochi rice cakes and small rice crackers in red/pink, white and green. She also showed me a musical display where all the doll figurines were anthropomorphic rabbits that played a special Girls Day song called Ureshii Hinamatsuri. It was, as expected, absurdly cute!

One of my Japanese teachers added that amazake (sweet, non-alcoholic sake) is a customary drink and that families typically put the displays away quickly after the holiday ends because of a superstition that to fail to do so will result in their daughters having a hard time finding a husband!

The doll sets can be quite elaborate and sometimes are considered "family treasures" that are passed down from generation to generation. And, if there is no family heirloom set, one doll up to an entire Hina Matsuri display is a traditional present for grandparents to give to granddaughters on the 1st Hina Matsuri after she is born.