GIRLS and Boys Festival Dolls

[watsonmil]

Dear All,

 

I should like to endeavor to write a short treatise on the Girls / Boys Festival Dolls. I promised to do this sometime ago in response to the following thread by Ray Allen : viewtopic.php?f=9&t=8868&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=doll but just never seemed to get around to it. Although perhaps not of much interest to our Nihonto nor Kodogu collector members, ... never the less a few of us have interests in all forms of Japanese Art/Artifacts

 

A short history on the Girls Festival ( March 3rd ) is often referred to as Hinamatsuri for when the peach blossoms open or Momo-No-Sekku or Peach Blossom Festival. Displaying dolls near children's beds were meant to ward off illness and evil spirits. The display of dolls became widespread after a display in Kyoto Palace, and continues to this day. Most of the Girls Festival Dolls incorporates the Imperial Couple and their court displayed on a shelf system of steps with the Imperial Couple at the top, and lesser members of court arranged on the lower steps. The dolls are called Hina dolls and vary in height from 4 inches to up to 15 inches. The dolls are constructed of straw, wood, silk cloth, and gofun ( crushed egg shells for the faces and hands ).

 

The dolls are never, never played with and are most often handed down as family heirlooms. The detail and artistic merit of the best Hina dolls are a thing to behold. For a far more detailed discussion on the Girls Festival dolls, please refer to the magazine Arts of Asia September - October 1986 issue.

 

Now lets deal with the Boys Festival ( May 5th ) often know as Tango-No-Sekku .... the first day of the horse. Here the dolls are also Hina dolls of the same construction as the Girls Festival dolls and again are arranged in the same system of steps for display. The main difference is the theme of the dolls. They are generally all of Heroic Personages and their attendants, .. but quite often a doll horse will also be displayed. The dolls again can be of considerable height often as tall as 15 - 16 inches tall, with an average being about 11 - 12 inches tall. The heroes come from all periods of Japanese history, and among the most popular are Yoshitsune, Benki and various non descript samurai attendants. Ocassionally we see the Chinese warrior Shoki ( the demon queller ) . In addition it is not unusual to see displayed clay dolls, as an example the seven gods of good fortune displayed on a lower step of the display. Kato Kiyomasa ( 1562 - 1611 ) is also another popular clay doll. There are several others including Toyotomi Hideyoshi ( 1536 - 1598 ). Again I must emphasis the dolls were never meant to be played with but were considered heirlooms to be put away and handed down to future generations.

 

I have already mentioned the magazine Arts of Asia for further study, but I would also like to add the book: Japanese Dolls by Lea Baten as an excellent reference for not only Girls/Boys Festival dolls, but other traditional Japanese dolls as well.

 

I am including a few photos of Boys Festival dolls from my own collection. I believe all are Meiji era, and all are of very high quality and form an important part of my Japanese Art collection.

 

Presented for the enjoyment of NMB members. Any errors are mine alone.

 

... Ron Watson

 

PS. I regret the poor quality of the photos but I did not want to remove the dolls from their display case.

[Bugyotsuji]

Now those are something special. A privilege to see them. Thanks too for the background information.

 

Web have some odd bits around the house, but nothing like that.

[Toryu2020]

Ron et al -

 

You may find some additional tidbits to add to your article here...http://tinyurl.com/28t2xnl

 

-t

[Brian]

Ron,

Excellent info and items!

Thanks for sharing this, on a subject that hasn't been well covered here before. You have stunning examples.

 

Brian