OBACHAN'S SCRIBBLES

Friday, March 12, 2010

THE WHOLE TOWN CELEBRATES DOLL FESTIVAL

My mom's hometown is another small town which was once prosperous from the production of good quality charcoal. Now the place is a national preservation district of traditional houses. There they started a new event several years ago to attract tourists. It is doll festival celebration, but instead of each household celebrating the festival privately, almost all houses in a certain section of the town turn into galleries of hina-ningyo dolls where tourists can walk in and see the dolls freely for 5 days (Mar. 3rd to 7th).
* Click photos to enlarge.

In this traditional town, most houses seem to have expensive sets of hina-ningyo handed down for 2 to 3 generations.


Some recent creations like this also welcomed the tourists.



I heard that the two dolls on the top row were made 104 years ago. The white kimono hung in the back is bride's gown, worn by the great grandma, grandma and mother in this house.


This is also a recent creation. Very cute.


This one was another antique doll, perhaps close to 100 years old.







I love them so much.




It was such a gorgeous day and peach blossoms were in full bloom.
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posted by obachan, 3/12/2010 06:59:00 AM

3 Comments:

Loved your pictures of the "Dolls". Thanks for sharing. The peach blossoms set the season.
ダイアナ
commented by Blogger A Prunepicker's Posting, 3/28/2010 1:59 AM  
I'm glad that you liked these photos. The festival was certainly worth visiting. :)
commented by Blogger obachan, 4/05/2010 5:15 PM  
Oh those dolls are so beautiful (and so old! They must be very well taken care of to last so long.) Thank you for sharing--I hope someday I can see this in person myself :D
commented by Blogger tofugirl, 5/24/2010 10:28 AM  

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