Hinamatsuri - Doll's Festival

It is a custom to decorate Hina dolls, offer peach blossoms and sweets, and celebrate with white sake on March 3rd every year, and is also called "Peach Festival." It is a festival mainly for women and is contrasted with the May Festival for men, but the history of the festival custom centered on Hina dolls is surprisingly new. Records of events related to Hina dolls on the March Festival at the Imperial Court and the Shogunate appear in the early Edo period (around 1630), and it is thought that the form of Hina Matsuri finally took hold after the Kanbun era (1661-73). Since then, Hina Matsuri has gradually become more ornate in relation to the development of Hina dolls as an art form, and has spread from cities to rural areas, but it was not until the Meiji era that it became widespread. In the early Edo period, Hina dolls were mainly arranged on a flat platform, but with the appearance of elaborate clay dolls in costume, they became more elegant, and the format of arranging the Emperor and Empress dolls, court ladies, ministers, five musicians, servants, and Hina doll accessories on a stacked platform became fixed, and the custom of giving Hina dolls to newborn girls also became widespread. After the Meiji period, the sale of Hina dolls at stores further promoted this trend.

On the other hand, there are some regions where ancient customs with a different flavor from these urban Hinamatsuri festivals are still practiced. The "Nagashi Hina" festival around Tottori City is particularly noteworthy, and after the "paper dolls" are worshiped, they are placed on a straw bale and floated down the river along with offerings on the evening of March 3rd. In other words, it is a "purification" doll-sending ceremony. Also, in the villages of the Kanto region, there was a custom of sending off old dolls down the river on March 3rd, with women and children offering sake and worshiping them outdoors, crying as they say goodbye, according to "Kyuu Shoran." Furthermore, around March 3rd, there is a fairly widespread custom of children going outdoors all day to play on the beach, climb the mountain, view the flowers, and enjoy spring. In particular, the traditions of the custom of setting up Hina dolls outdoors and playing with them while mourning their parting, such as the "Mangatsuba" in southern Nagano Prefecture and the "Noasobi" in Chiba Prefecture, are noteworthy. Of course, general outdoor play, mountain climbing, and beach playing have no connection with Hina dolls, but it is certain that many of these activities retain the ancient meaning of "sending off the gods."

By the way, in the Suma chapter of "The Tale of Genji," there is an article about summoning an onmyoji (a fortune teller of exorcism) to perform an exorcism on the day of Joshi in March, and then placing the doll on a boat and setting it adrift, and in "Kenmu Annual Events," it is written that in the "Miakashi" event of the March festival, after a "doll" is treated to a feast, it is exorcised and sent off. The purification event of Joshi in March is a clue to the origin of the March festival Hinamatsuri, and Santo Kyoden's point that the original form of the dolls in the Hinamatsuri was originally a "nademono" (a doll that was sent off with "sins and impurities") is probably spot on. The "Joshi" ritual, which includes drinking peach wine and playing water-themed parties, was an imported custom from China's Onmyodo, but waterside purification rituals were an earlier custom in Japan, and the "Joshi Purification Ceremony" was born as a syncretized event, with the "nademono" eventually becoming the main feature of the Hinamatsuri. Then, as craft techniques advanced and people began competing over the finest craftsmanship in the production of Hina dolls, they came to be preserved and treasured, and even celebrated annually, and the ancient meaning of "Nagashi Hina" was eventually forgotten.

However, there are still some customs in March that cannot be explained by the "Joshi no Harae" alone. For example, in the Kitakyushu region, this day is called the "Mugibome-sekku" (Barley Blooming Festival), and there is an event to praise the growth of wheat in the fields. The aforementioned mountain and outdoor activities also had the meaning of welcoming and entertaining the "god of agriculture" outdoors at the beginning of spring. In other words, it seems that the basis for the reception of March Joshi no Sekku was the "god sending-off event," in which plague gods and spirits that come and go during that season were entertained and asked to leave.

[Toshimi Takeuchi]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

毎年3月3日に雛人形を飾り、桃花や雛菓子を供えて、白酒で祝う習俗で、「桃の節供」ともいう。婦女子主体の祭りで、男子の五月節供と対置されてもいるが、雛人形主体の節供習俗の歴史は案外に新しい。江戸時代初頭（1630ころ）に宮廷や幕府で三月節供に雛人形にかかわる行事があった記録が現れ、やがて寛文(かんぶん)年間（1661～73）以降にようやく雛祭の形が定着したとみられる。以後の雛祭は、工芸品としての雛人形の生成発達と関連してしだいに華美な形になり、また都市から農村へと波及していったが、その一般化は明治以降である。江戸時代初期の雛飾りは平壇・立雛の形が主だったらしいが、やがて精巧な土焼きの衣装人形の出現で華麗になり、重ね壇に内裏(だいり)雛以下、官女、大臣、五人囃子(ばやし)、仕丁(しちょう)、雛道具を並べるという形式が固定していき、新生の女児に雛人形を贈る風習も広まった。そして明治以降は、商店の雛人形売り出しがこうした傾向をいっそう推し進めもしたのである。

　一方、こうした都市的雛祭とは別趣の古俗をいまに伝える地方もいくつかある。鳥取市周辺の「流し雛」はとくに注目され、「紙雛」を祭ったすえ、3月3日夕方、それを桟俵にのせて供物とともに川に流し去る。つまり「祓(はらえ)」の人形送りである。また関東の村々には、三月節供に古雛を川へ流し送るといって、白酒を供えて婦人・子供が野外にそれを祭り、泣いて別れを惜しむ風習があったと、『嬉遊笑覧(きゆうしょうらん)』にはある。さらに三月節供のころ、磯(いそ)遊び、山あがり、花見、春なぐさみなどといって、子供たちが野外に出て終日遊び共同飲食する風習も、かなり広く各地にみられる。とくに長野県南部の「三月場」、千葉県の「野あそび」のように、雛人形を野外に据えて遊ばせ、その別離を惜しむ風習の伝承は注目されよう。もちろん一般の野遊び、山あがり、磯遊びには、雛人形との関連はないが、しかしそこにも「神送り」の古義をとどめるところが多いことは確かであろう。

　ところで『源氏物語』須磨(すま)の巻には、三月上巳(じょうし)の日に陰陽師(おんみょうじ)を召して祓を行い、その人形(ひとがた)を船に乗せて流したという記事がみえ、『建武(けんむ)年中行事』にも、三月節供の「御燈(みあかし)」行事には「人形」に饗応(きょうおう)したあと、それを祓え送るとある。三月上巳の祓行事は、三月節供の雛祭の源流を知る手掛りで、本来、雛祭の人形の原形は、「罪穢(つみけがれ)」をつけて送り流す「撫物(なでもの)」であったという山東京伝(さんとうきょうでん)の指摘は的を射ていよう。桃酒や曲水宴を伴う「上巳」の行事は中国陰陽道の習俗の移入であるが、水辺の祓行事が先行習俗として日本にはあって、その習合行事として「上巳の祓行事」が生じ、その「撫物」が雛祭の主役にやがてなったものといえよう。そして工芸技術の進歩で雛人形の製作に巧緻(こうち)を競うに至ると、それを保存愛玩(あいがん)し連年祭ることにもなり、「流し雛」の古意はやがて忘却されるに至ったとみてよい。

　しかし三月節供にはなお「上巳の祓」だけでは解きえない習俗もいくつかある。たとえば、北九州地方でこの日を「麦ぼめ節供」といい、畑の麦の生育ぶりをほめはやす意味の行事があった。前記の山遊び、野遊びにもむしろ、春の初めに野外に「農の神」を迎えて饗応する意味のものがかなりあった。つまりその季節に来往する疫神、精霊のたぐいを饗応して、彼らの退去を求める「神送り行事」が、三月上巳の節供の受容基盤であったともみられる。

［竹内利美］

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