Hinamatsuri in Hitachiota

I went with a group of friends to Hitachiota, Ibaraki today for the Hinamatsuri. Technically Hinamatsuri is March 3, and often called "girl's day," but the decorations for the festival are usually up for about two months, often from mid-January to late March. 

A very traditional hinamatsuri display

The decorations are intricate and numerous, and when a whole town gets in on the decorating it's quite a wonder to see. Shops string up chains of hand-made decorations that look like wisteria, or chains of little people, or little people strung together to look like wisteria. You'll see tiny rabbits, birds, carrots, balls, and lots of flowers. You find yourself dodging and weaving around dangling ornaments and nearly bumping over displays, as there is no concern shown for traffic patterns in the shops. It makes you slow down and look. How can you not, when it brushes your eyelashes?

Beautiful cloth bird ornaments displayed in front of a quilt

It's fun to see how many ways there are to interpret the hina dolls. I've seen them made of nuts, cloth, paper, q-tips, everything imaginable. This "flat-pack" version is one of my favorites (it's better without the sound, sorry):

And here's the pattern for it, if you want to make your own. Use reddish colors for the female, black and neutral fabric for the male. After folding in half down the line and sewing the edges, one stitch will keep it together in the front:

Flat-pack hina doll pattern

I also saw this adorable tissue holder, made to look like a kimono:

Just part the robes to access your tissues!

There were beautiful pictures made from torn paper that really looked like paintings:

Picture made from torn paper

Don't believe me? Here's a close-up. The windows give it away.

And I was delighted to have shopping time in an antique store. I was carrying the ikkanbari bag that I made, and one of the owners recognized the style. They had several, in fact, and a drawer full of incredibly old paper (one from the Edo era, over 100 years old). My friends were very surprised to see the collection, because even though they are Japanese they too only learned of the craft last month.

Ikkanbari made from paper with no cloth accents

Old paper from the Edo era that will be used for ikkanbari

This store sold fabric, too, and I could easily have spent an hour pouring over their selection. The prices were very reasonable for the quality and I couldn't resist buying some. There is a beautiful purple silk, an intricately woven green, and a black fabric with a very unique pattern that looks like it moves as the light changes. The black was already cut up in odd shapes, but I don't mind because it lowered the price and I'll have no trouble finding ways to use it.

Skinny bolts of beautiful cloth

This was a beautiful piece of cloth that the owners included with my purchase

So if you ever find yourself in Hitachiota in March, I highly recommend browsing in the city. It's very quiet on the weekdays and some of the shops are closed, but during the weekends they have kimono to try on and rent for the day, and the shops are busy selling beautiful and unique clothing, or delicious coffee and snacks. They told us it's fun to see everyone walking around in kimono, almost like a parade. Sounds fun, don't you think?