March 10, 2009, Kokeshi doll @ home, Olympus u830
On Friday I had the day off work because my Shun & I were going to my second cousin Amelia`s school to talk to them about Japan. They are 10 years old and learning about Japan and some Japanese this term at school. When my cousin`s wife emailed me several weeks back to see if we could perhaps go to her class I jumped at the chance. It has been almost a year since I last stepped foot into a classroom and I miss it (surprisingly!).
After emailing back and forth with Amelia`s teacher we settled on Friday afternoon for a 45 minute session and the topic was “Hinamatsuri” or “Dolls festival” which happened on March 3rd. I am not sure what you know about hinamatsuri but I did not really know much about it before but I did a bit of research in preparation.
Some interesting tibbits I found out included
- On a girls first hinamatsuri it is called hatzu-zekku and it is common for the grandparents to buy their granddaughter the dolls.
- A doll set traditionally has 15 dolls!
- Sometimes paper dolls are made (often with attached boats!) breathed on, rubbed against their bodies and sent down the river taking with them bad luck and bad health and bringing good luck and health to the children!
- Meiji Jingu, a shrine in Tokyo, sells environmentally friendly paper dolls for people to use that are made out of fish food!
- There is a hinamatsuri song- which i now know!
- A doll set can cost up to about $10,000
I learnt a lot more that we shared with Amelia`s class. I forgot how funny 10 year olds can be and their crazy questions which included things like
- Can we all come to your wedding?
- What happens if moths eat the dolls clothes?
- Do the emperor and empress dolls change when they real emperor changes? (I don`t know the answer to this but I thought not)
- Do people try to steal the dolls?
- do the dolls really eat the snack that people leave for them?
And a lot more! After talking about hinamatsuri and having question time and showing some pictures and some dolls we taught them the song “ureshii hinamatsuri” and made origami paper dolls!!
This picture is of one of the dolls I took with me to the lesson. I don`t have any real hinamatusri dolls ( or hina ningyo) so I took two kokeshi dolls that I have to show the students.
We had a lot of fun! Shun was extremely nervous and did not say much but the girls adored him!
I am hoping my DSLR camera will be returned to me this week. I plan to ring them tomorrow!
Popularity: 11% [?]
I am just a twenty something Aussie girl living in Chiba, Japan with my Japanese husband trying to make sense of the crazy Japanese world we live in! We welcomed our first son in December 2009 (Noah) and a second son in January 2011, 2 months premature (Shion). I am working hard at raising them to be confident, bilingual, happy kids!
Yay I love Hina-matsuri!!!! Can’t believe I get to actually celebrate it next year!!
The questions they asked were so cute!! I’m glad Shun enjoyed it
I love elemebtary aged kids. I wanted to be a teacher but the state were I lived in America makes it nearly impossible to get your licence… thus the journey to Japan lol
Yup, yup and yup. With two girls we’ve got the hina-ningyo and do all the tuff every year. The dolls don’t change- they’re representative of a really old emperor and empress. (the boys day samurai outfits you can get replicas of actual warriors outfits- that’s cool!) And that ‘akari wo tsukemashou’ song- agghhhhhh!!!! It’S all the girls have been singing for weeks now. Makes me want to run away into the mountains!!
Cool you got to do Japanese culture with the kids. Your niece must have been so proud.
Aww! Sounds like a really great experience for you both! I love Kokeshi dolls! It’s probably the one Japanese souveniour that I don’t have! Must get one next trip!
Our daughter’s dolls are very special to us because my husband’s favourite aunt had sent them to us the day before she passed away suddenly. The timing was unbelievable. I will have to blog about it some day.
I think you should invite the whole class to your wedding!
Oh that is awesome!!! I bet you would have made quite an impression on the kids! Though your story, took me back to Japanese lessons in Grade 4 and one such lesson when Mrs S wore two different shoes to class and you pointed this out to her – much to her chagrin!! Hhaahahaha!
xx
I think the dolls are very artistic is so many ways, I even at this age still love dolls, like the Blythe doll! Sounds like you had such a blast.
I am getting pretty angry for you about the DLR camera taking so darn long… this is just insane- I hope you write them a letter, at least they should have provided a loner, what if you were a photographer for business= loss of money…
Wow…I certainly learned a thing or two! We also have the whole set bought by MIL.We wanted a little one in a glass case but no,she bought the biggest thing out.Oh well,bet the girls will love it in years to come and it does look lovely;)
I’m really sorry now that I recommended the Olympus to you – I feel that they are treating you badly and they should have just given you a new one right off the bat….. I do hope it will be in your hands very soon!
I love that picture. And that’s a bummer they took so long with your camera. : (
Love kokeshi dolls!