|
 Hina Dolls
Perhaps the most widespread and popular type of doll is the hina doll. Displayed for only one short time each year, for Girl's Day on March 3rd, nearly every household has at least a small set to put out to celebrate this festival. While the most basic set may contain only the two dolls together called the dairi-bina, or Imperial couple hina, more elaborate sets often contain a standardized set of fifteen dolls arranged on a hina-dan, or a special display shelf. In modern times, some girls may add other favored dolls to the display as well, although they are not considered to truly belong.
The dairi-bina represent a couple of the Imperial Court. They are often considered to be the emperor and empress, although it is commonly believed that they were not originally intended to represent this couple in particular, but rather a prince and a lady of the court. They are always the center of the set and the display, and sit on the top shelf of the hina-dan. Below the dairi-bina sit three ladies-in-waiting, displayed as ready to serve sake, rice wine. The middle lady holds a short table, while the other two dolls hold either a long handled or short handled sake pourer. Below the ladies-in-waiting are five musicians with different instruments. Included in the set of musicians are one with a taiko 'fat' drum and drumsticks, two with tsuzumi hand drums, one with a fue flute, and one chanter, who sits with his fan on the floor in front of him in readiness for the start of a song.
Hina dolls have perhaps the longest and most illustrious history of all Japanese dolls. These dolls maintain several characteristics of different types of dolls dating back to the Heian period. The amagatsu and hoko (for information about these dolls, see History of Japanese Dolls) did not develop as a pair, but independently, but by the Muromachi period (1336-1568), the two dolls would often be displayed together as a pair, and are thought to be direct ancestors of modern dairi-bina. The male's outstretched arms were continued in early hina males and females, as was the significant difference in height between the amagatsu and the much smaller hoko. These dolls seem to have directly inspired the tachibina, the earliest hina type dolls. Tachibina, or standing hina, like all hina dolls, consist of a pair, one male and one female. The male is usually about 38 cm high, while the female is around 23 cm. They are generally made of paper and are relatively two dimensional. He wears a kosode, or short-sleeved kimono, and hakama pants, all of paper, while her kosode is constructed simply of paper wrap ped cylindrically around her and tied with a paper obi sash. His outstretched arms and shape are very reminiscent of the amagatsu, and even more of the hitogata, especially given his two-dimensionality. The simplicity of the female form calls to mind the hoko, although she also has the influence of the amagatsu's cylindrical body as opposed to the hoko's arms and legs.
Much more popular are the suwaribina, or seated hina. Almost all hina dolls used today are of this type, who are self-supporting and much more stable. Suwaribina have gone through several stylistic changes in the perhaps over 500 years since their first creation. The earliest, the Muromachi bina, named for the Muromachi period (1336-1568) in which they may have first been made, look very much like the tachibina, with arms outstretched and no hands or feet, and with very simple faces. The Kan'ei bina, made during the Kan'ei period (1624-1644), feature a male whose arms are bent in front of him like those of modern dolls, and with hands, while the female maintains her handless outstretched arms. The faces of both became larger and more similar to modern style. The Kyoho bina, from the Kyoho era (1716-1735), are possibly the most elaborate type of hina doll. Popular among the merchant class, these dolls had rich silk brocades, shuchin, and embroidery, with expressive faces and distinctive body shapes. Their overall appearance is far more elaborate than that of the court members they were meant to represent would have been.
Around 1751-1764, the Horeki era, a doll maker named Jirozaemon sold a new type of hina, featuring round faces similar to those of the first Muromachi bina, but with bent arms and no hands. Today, the term Jirozaemon hina applies to any hina with a round head rather than the longer, more common head typical of the Kan'ei and Kyoho bina. The term does not necessarily imply a doll from the Jirozaemon workshop or this era. Yusoku bina, created around 1750, are the style that may have imitated the Imperial court most accurately. Costumes are elegant but simple, and are correct to the smallest detail with the yusoku, a Heian period manual dictating behavior including details of clothing, for which the dolls are named. The Kokin bina, developed during the Meiwa era (1764-1772) and named for a Heian period poetry anthology, had clothing which was much more elaborate than the Yusoku bina, but less so than the Kyoho. Kokin and similar style dolls remain popular today, although heads are often constructed with the toso technique, a molding of a mixture of kiri, or paulownia, wood sawdust and funorin, a seaweed glue, or with sekko, a plaster-like substance.
  
|
|
