Prose 生活隨筆: Hinamatsuri 女兒節

Although I’m not Japanese, seeing Japanese doll displays at the Huntington Library and a Japanese restaurant aroused my interest in learning this tradition. March 3rd is the Japanese Girls’ Day, also known as the Doll’s Day、 Shangsi (じょうし/じょうみ) and Hinamatsuri (雛祭り). One of five seasonal festivals (五節句, gosekku), “Peach Festival” (桃の節句, Momo no Sekku), was originally on the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar. After the Meiji Restoration, it was changed to March 3 in the Gregorian calendar. The earliest record of displaying the dolls as part of the Peach Festival is in 1625. Imperial court ladies set up equipment for Emperor Go-Mizunoo’s daughter Oki-ko to engage in doll play. After Oki-ko succeeded her father as the Empress Meishō, Hinamatsuri legally became the holiday’s name in 1687.

Another saying about the origin of Hinamatsuri is: Influenced by Chinese customs during the Heian period in Japan, people made dummies out of paper, grass, soil, etc., and put them into the river or the sea to flow away. They hoped that their bad luck would also be attached to the dummy and float away. In the early days, it was very popular among the noble women of the court to enjoy dolls. Later combining with the custom of praying for physical well-being, this festival became popular among the common people and gradually evolved into the Japanese Doll’s (Girls) Festival.

On the day of the Hinamatsuri, parents will set up a multi-tiered doll stand for their daughters, from top to bottom, placing dolls in kimonos, which are called hina-ningyō. They also offered diamond-shaped sticky rice cakes and peach blossoms to express congratulations and pray for the happiness of their daughters. On this day, girls usually wear kimonos, invite playmates, eat cakes, drink white sweet rice wine, chat, laugh and play in front of the dolls display. The dolls are not only gorgeous in costumes, but also very particular about their placement. They are generally divided into one layer, three layers, five layers, and seven layers. There are various ancient court figures such as the emperor, queen, palace maid, musicians, attendants, guards and so on. It is placed on a special multi-tiered doll stand (雛壇, hinadan) , and some are also placed in a glass box. In Japan, odd numbers are considered lucky numbers. The number of tiers and dolls a family may have depends on their budget. Families normally ensure that girls have a set of the two main dolls before their first Hinamatsuri. The dolls are usually fairly expensive and may be handed down from older generations as heirlooms.

Here are the examples of the placement order of the dolls. Generally, dolls are divided into seven tiers/layers, which are:

The top tier holds two dolls, known as imperial dolls (Emperor and Empress). The traditional placement is male left and female right from the direction of the doll. The two are usually placed in front of a gold folding screen and placed beside green Japanese garden trees. Optional are the two lampstands and the paper or silk lanterns which are usually decorated with cherry or plum blossom patterns.
The second tier holds three court ladies san-nin kanjo (三人官女) who serve sake to the male and female dolls.
The third tier holds five male musicians gonin bayashi (五人囃子). Each holds a musical instrument except the singer, who holds a fan.
The fourth tier holds two ministers (大臣, daijin). One young and one old. They may be the emperor’s bodyguards or administrators in Kyoto.
The fifth tier holds three helpers (仕丁, shichō) or protectors (衛士, eji) of the Emperor and Empress.
On the sixth and seventh tiers, various miniature furniture, tools, carriages, etc., are displayed.

我雖然不是日本人，但是在亨廷頓圖書館和一家日本餐館看到日本娃娃的擺設，引起我對這個傳統想要了解的興趣。三月三日是日本女兒節，又稱人偶節、上巳節、雛祭、桃花節、娃娃節。屬於“五節供”之一的“桃花節”，本來在農曆的三月初三，明治維新後改為西曆 3 月 3 日。展示娃娃作為桃花節的一部分的最早記錄是在 1625 年，是宮女為後水尾天皇的女兒 Oki-ko 擺設玩偶而來。 1687 年當 Oki-ko 接替她的父親成為明昭皇后後，女兒節正式成為了這個節日的名稱。

另一個女兒節起源的說法是：日本平安時代受到中國的風俗影響，人們用紙、草、泥土做成假人，放到河裡或海中流走，以期望自己的厄運也附在假人身上隨之漂走。早先在宮廷貴族女子之間非常流行賞玩偶人，後來又與祈求身體安泰之風俗相結合，這個節日才在庶民之間盛行起來，並逐漸演變為日本的女兒節。

在雛祭這一天，父母會為女兒設置階梯狀的陳列台，由上至下，擺放穿著和服的娃娃，這種娃娃在日本稱為雛人形。並供奉菱形粘糕、桃花，以示祝賀並祈求女兒幸福。在這天女孩大多穿著和服，邀集玩伴，在偶人壇前食糕餅、飲白色甜米酒，談笑嬉戲。女兒節人偶不僅服飾華麗，擺放也非常講究，一般分為一層、三層、五層、七層擺法。有天皇、皇后、宮女、樂師、侍從、衞士等多種古代宮廷人物。擺放在特製的人偶雛壇上，也有擺放在玻璃盒子中的。在日本，奇數被認為是吉利之數。一個家庭可能擁有的層數和玩偶數量取決於他們的預算。一個家庭通常會確保女孩在第一次雛祭之前有一組兩個主要的娃娃。這些娃娃通常都相當昂貴，可能作為傳家之寶從老一代傳下來。

以下是玩偶放置順序的示例。一般擺人形娃娃分為七個階級，分別是:

頂層是一對天皇和天后的宮廷人形。傳統擺法是從娃娃方向的男左女右。兩者通常放置在金色屏風前，並放置在綠色的日本園林樹木旁邊。有時加上兩個燈檯和通常裝飾有櫻花或梅花圖案的紙燈或絲燈。
第二層有三名宮女，她們為男女玩偶提供清酒。
第三層有五位男樂師。每個人都拿著樂器，除了歌手拿著一把扇子。
第四層有兩個大臣。一個年輕，一個老。他們可能是京都的皇帝的保鏢或行政人員。
第五層有皇帝和皇后的三個僕人或衛士。
第六層和第七層，陳列著各種家具、工具、馬車等。