Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Doll's Festival

March 3rd was Hina Matsuri or the Doll Festival (sometimes Girl's Day) in Japan. Females young and old (mostly young) all over the country set out their red-clothed, stepped platforms and doll displays representing the Emperor, Empress and their court. Below is an example. They are pretty impressive, the detail, the meanings behind everything. I won't tell you how much one of those costs. But you could examine one for hours and still find something new.

When I first moved here a good friend made me a set of dolls. They are hugely adorable and I set them out in the foyer every year. Every year but this one; I forgot.

On March fourth my husband asked where they were and I said I had been too busy to put them out. It was then that he reminded me about a tradition or superstition or something that his mother often repeats to me.

She says that at least once a year you must display every kind of doll you own, anything with eyes to be exact. If not, the spirit of the doll will come and do something bad to you. I just love that way of thinking. More so, the degree to which she believes it. With very little searching you can see the seed to a pretty decent horror story. When I get around to writing it, Chucky's gonna look like a girlie-boy.

All that said and done, I can still keep myself up at night when I ponder how many figurines, dolls, and assorted stuffed animals that I have boxed away, closeted -- all of them with eyes, no less -- and how disgruntled and moulding they just might be plotting my demise.

6 comments:

Tori O. said...

LOL. That would make a great horror story. And thanks for checking out my second blog. No, I never met my goal, but I'm restarting my efforts, and I'll be re-doing the blog.

Brian said...

I love that first picture. Those dolls are beautiful.

Bk30 said...

Isn't it great how the muse will sneak up...AND BITE YOU IN THE BUM!
That is a great story idea.
Kind of reminds me doll my sister had. We ended up locking it up in the storage space under the stairs because it freaked us out so bad. This was before "Chucky" or Cabbage Patch dolls. LOL

Kappa no He said...

Tjwriter: I'll keep an eye on both blogs. I could use the inspiration as well!

Brian: I just heard there is some exhibition of antique dolls in the next town over. They are supposed to be incredible. My plan is to visit this weekend and take pics.

Bk: So what ever happened to that doll??? We had one in our old house (we were renting, the owner had left it). And it was creepy as well. So old she was going bald and her skin was flaking. We always pretended she got up and walked around at night. I remember I taught an English class at home for awhile and one of the boys says he coundn't concentrate because she was staring at him so hard. I wish I had taken a decent picture of her.

Bk30 said...

You know, come to think of it,I can't remember what happened to her. Maybe she is still out there..somewhere.

jean said...

Yikes - enough with the dolls, Kappa and bk30!!

Always lots of 'didn't know that' stuff in your blog, Kappa (ex. the eye thing and the last post about the six days - only was familiar with taian and tomobiki), even though I've lived here for ages -- many thanks.