The dolls festival : Hina Matsuri

I got up this morning and after watching my favorite 15minute mini-drama, started making a salade nicoise, a la “student in Japan”. I had been invited to go to a friend of my ikebana sensei’s for a potluck lunch and to see the Hina matsuri doll display in her home. March 3 is Girl’s Day and the culmination of the Hina matsuri which dates back to Edo period and is a mixture of other festivals from earlier times, but is basically a day for wishing good luck (and a good marriage) to young girls and is celebrated with a display of dolls, either a single pair of Empress (O-Hina-sama) and Emperor (O-Dairi-sama) dolls, or a more elaborate display that can include up to 7 tiers with dolls representing court ladies, warriors, and musicians as well as house hold items like tea services, carriages and trunks and plates of mochi, all in miniature. Typically when a girl is born, her grandparents give her a Hina sama doll, or a set of dolls. Separate “little girl” dolls join the display but I’m not sure just when they are acquired. In the last few weeks, displays of dolls have cropped up everywhere: in store windows, in my school, on TV. My sensei’s daughter has a big one in her home, but the one I saw today is the biggest and most elaborate I’ve seen.

A little before 12 I rode my bicycle to a shopping center not far from my “home”, where I met my sensei and then walked on to our destination. The house was a lovely mixture of modern and traditional styles with western style rooms, but also the traditional entrance way and garden and a large tatami room where the doll display was set up in front of the tokonoma and where we ate at the low table traditionally used for eating. Even though I know better, I even made the classically gaigin mistake of forgetting to take off my slippers (kindly loaned to me when I went to the kitchen) when entering this room! While Japanese people usually where slippers around the house, always leaving outdoor shoes at the entranceway, they NEVER wear them in the tatami room.

Soon after we arrived we all sat down to lovely lunch. The hostess’ husband joined us, the only man at the event. There was delicious chirashi sushi (scatter sushi), sandwiches (ham and egg perhaps), some kind of huge black bean that was sort of sweet, o nigiri, (rice ball made with read beans and sticky rice, a holiday specialty), a potato and meat dish, pickles made from daikon and my salad. Later we had a “jelly and fruit” desert, sort of like Jell-O but less sweet. Once lunch was done, the hostess, also a kimono teacher, got out some yukatas (light summer kimonos, see my blog O bon) so they could teach me how to tie the obi (sash/belt). She also dressed up Sai Chan, sensei’s granddaughter! Before I had to leave to go to my calligraphy class, tea was served and we ate the special Hina sama mochi (rice cakes. It was great fun to be sort of “one of the family” and a special foreign guest at the same time.

I’ve put a few pictures here and a link to more, probably more dolls than you want to see!

Hina matsuri

Valentine's Day in Japan

Valentine's Day Ikebana etc.

On Valentine's Day here I went with a friend to an ikebana show. It was held in a large department store (as was the one I saw I Nagoya a number of months ago). The weather was warm and breezy and felt like Spring was going to make an early arrival this year.

The show was lovely and I took too many pictures with my failing camera, but some of you might enjoy them any way. There a also a few pictures of the O Hina Matsuri dolls that we saw in the store afterward. The doll festival is coming up in the first week of March and I expect to see a lot more of these dolls. More on that next time, but for now please have enjoy the flowers and a few banal pictures of our lunch!

As for Valentine's Day here, it is mostly a day when girls give boys they like chocolates, so in the stores were all sorts of chocolates and also the makings for home made chocolates. The teachers bought us all some chocolates, but on the whole it's not that big a deal. In May I believe there is White day on which boys give girls chocolate!

A fiery festival

Takisanji Oni Matsuri in Okazaki

All over Japan they are celebrating the traditional beginning of spring by driving out demons and welcoming good fortune into their homes. People dressed as demons (oni) are symbolically driven out by throwing beans (or, as in the case of my school, packets of peanuts and roasted beans, which we gathered back up and ate after our demon, the head of the faculty, was driven out!) However, at Takisanji Temple Oni Festival fire is used to drive out the demons! Last night several friends and I went to see this famous local festival. The pictures I took are nearly useless, as I don't have the right camera for fast moving action and flaming bundles of wood and that is just what we saw. Having said that, I still posted a few of my pictures which you can see by clicking the link above.

To get to Takisanji temple I rode my bike to the central Okazaki train station, about 30 minutes, where I met my friends and caught a bus to the temple. After a 25-minute ride we arrived at the foot of a steep, wide stone stairway that let to the temple. A few of the usual festival food stands were just starting to offer interesting looking snacks at the several landings on the way up, but not knowing when the ceremony would begin, we hurried up the stairs. At the top we came immediately into the crowd that was beginning to gather around the front of the temple where a sort of stage was erected. On either side of this central space two huge bundles of bamboo and wood had been erected and were soon being ceremoniously lit by men in various, colorful costumes. Once these two fagots were lit, they threw off a lot of light and heat, and had to be attended to by several men with brooms constantly dipped in water and applied here and there to control the burning.

After that, several ritualized performances were done on the stage, accompanied by singing and drumming. For a long time nothing very exciting seemed to be happening, as the crowd slowly grew larger and larger. I took this opportunity to walk around the temple grounds and from one side I could see lots of coming and going as participants were putting on costumes and getting ready for something. There were groups of young people running around, fathers holding little children on the shoulders to see over the crowd, children climbing on the stone lanterns to get a better view, and lovers enjoying the darkness.

My friends and I had to catch one of only three buses that would be taking folks back at round 8 p.m., so we were getting a little apprehensive as the hour approached and still there was no sign of the finale, when suddenly from the back side of the temple, a large line of men dressed in white came running a long the porch carrying long burning torches which they bounced along the balustrade. Children wearing demon masks were carried and "chased" around the temple as the flames shot to roof edge and sparks showered the crowd. It was an amazing five or so minutes of drama as one wondered if, despite the numerous firemen on hand, the temple would not go up in flames at any moment or that one of the "demons" would not be dropped as they were lifted high to show the crowd!

Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, it was over. The burning torches were tossed off the porch into piles on the ground and the crowd immediately began to move to the stairways and down to the buses, cars or food stalls. We too headed down, but HAD to stop for a crepe with banana and whipped cream on the way. We just made it onto the last bus!

I am including a link here for a web site I found that describes this festival nicely and also has a few much better pictures. I hope you can feel the heat!

http://nippon-kichi.jp/article_list.do;jsessionid=D967EF22452A9F00F6C8DCAF8D4092A2?p=4660&ml_lang=en