Japanese Dolls - Hina-Matsuri | National-Louis University Archives and Special Collections
Title: Japanese Dolls - Hina-Matsuri
ID: 14/002
Other Note: References:
Baton, Lea. Identifying Japanese dolls: Notes on ningyō, (The Netherlands: Hotei Publishing, 2000).
Pate, Alan Scott. Japanese Dolls: The Fascinating World of Ningyō, (Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle Publishing, 2008).
Pate, Alan Scott. Ningyō: The Art of the Japanese Doll, photographs by Lynton Gardiner (Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 2005).
Baton, Lea. Identifying Japanese dolls: Notes on ningyō, (The Netherlands: Hotei Publishing, 2000).
Pate, Alan Scott. Japanese Dolls: The Fascinating World of Ningyō, (Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle Publishing, 2008).
Pate, Alan Scott. Ningyō: The Art of the Japanese Doll, photographs by Lynton Gardiner (Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 2005).
Show Subjects (links to similar collections)Scope and Contents: Hina-ningyō dolls are used in the Hina-matsuri or Girl’s Day Festival. The term hina is a contraction of the word hiina, meaning ‘small and lovely’ and was applied to many different miniature forms, such as models of buildings, but is most generally associated with dolls. Hina-ningyō can be literally translated as ‘miniature human figure’ or ‘doll’. With the development of the Girl’s Day Festival in the early Edo period (17th through mid-19th centuries), the term hina-ningyō came to be almost exclusively associated with the dolls used in this festival. By the end of the Edo period, this consisted largely of fifteen dolls: the dairi-bina (lord and lady); san’nin-kanjo (ladies-in-waiting); zuijin (ministers of the left and right); gonin-bayashi (five musicians); and shichō (three footmen). The dolls are accompanied by various accessories. Together, the dolls and all of the accessories create a Hina-matsuri set. National Louis University Archives houses the lord and lady, three ladies-in-waiting, two ministers, five musicians and one footman.