Hina Dolls (Traditional Girls' Festival Dolls) Exhibitions Are Being Held Now!

Today, March 3rd is the traditional Girls' Festival Day called "Hina-Matsuri" in Japan! Happy Hina-Matsuri Day!

As a traditional custom for Hina-Matsuri, people display special dolls set called "Hina-dolls" to wish girls' healthy growth and happy marriage. The Traditional "Hina-dolls" sets represent a prince and a princess, a happy married couple wearing ancient noble's kimono, and the formal full set is displayed on a set of stairs far inside of the room as shown in the upper right hand side photo. They are very gorgeous and also expensive.

There is a different type of decoration for the "Hina-Matsuri" called "Tsurushi-Bina (Hanging type decoration for Hina-Matsuri)" as shown in the lower three photos. 

"Tsurushi-Bina" was originally a regional custom for "Hina-Matsuri" in the Izu Peninsula area. However this type of decorations is inexpensive compared to the common type Hina-dolls, and people can make it by themselves. It spread to the whole country and today there are many craft clubs to enjoy making "Tsurushi-Bina".

In this season we can find many local exhibitions of this "Tsurushi-Bina" showing handmade "Tsurushi-Bina" decorations with a common type "Hina-dolls" set. It would be an enjoyable opportunity to see a Japanese seasonal custom.

The photos above are taken at Keio Mogusa-en Garden in Hino City, Tokyo. The "Tsurushi-Bina" exhibition will be held until March 6th there. Also Icho Hall in Hachioji City has a "Tsurushi-Bina" exhibition between March 18th and 20th. 

Photos of Japanese University Graduates in March

March is the graduation season in Japan. All Japanese schools start a new school year in the beginning of April and finish it in March. So, sometime during this month, schools all over Japan hold their graduation ceremony.

At the ceremony, students need to be formal, which is not a problem for Jr. high school / high school graduates since most of them have school uniforms. How about university graduates? Actually most university students wear traditional Japanese clothes at their Graduation Ceremony and nobody wears Western style gown although most university freshmen wear Western suits at the Entrance Ceremony.

So, in March people often come across university graduates wearing traditional clothes like in the photos above. Girl graduates are especially gorgeous with their kimono, but you can see two different styles of kimono in the photos. The most popular style among girl graduates is not a standard formal kimono, though there is one girl wearing a standard formal kimono for young lady in the left photo.

The most popular style is called “Hakama style” which is a combination of Kimono and long wide trousers which you can see in other two photos on the right. In old times Hakama was used when Samurai daughters learned how to use swords or spears.

After Japan got a modern government, the style became a typical high school girls clothes, because in those days people still wore kimonos every day. Unfortunately, actions were too limited with kimonos. The Hakama style solved the problem so it was considered a very modern style of the new era and became popular among young girls. The style continues to be attractive as a school girls’ style, and many girls still choose to wear it at their graduation ceremony.