Hinamatsuri 2014 - DIY Doll Display

Hey, guys! Bri here! ^^ I thought I'd do a filler recipe until St. Patty's, so here it is: How to do your own Hinamatsuri doll display using figures and toys found around the house.

For those who are wondering what Hinamatsuri is, it's a holiday in Japan, also known as Girls' Day. Traditionally, there's a group of dolls that are displayed to represent the wedding of a Heian emperor and empress. The displays can vary from three tiers to a tall seven. As the name implies, the holiday is mostly focused on young girls, with the dolls acting like good luck charms for health, growth, love and marriage in their future.

Here's an example of a three-tier display. We'll use this as a model. I forgot who let me use this, but many thanks to them! ^^ If this is your pic, kind sir or ma'am, I'll kindly credit you for it.

 

Here's my display! ^^ Cute, isn't it? I know it looks pretty ghetto, but I don't really have that many materials needed to make real ones.



These can be pretty easy to make, so here's what you need:

• Long cardboard boxes in any size
• Several figures, figurines or plushes
• Old t-shirts (one blue for the emperor, one red or pink for the empress)
• Construction paper
• Pink or gold ribbon
• A red blanket
• Glue

How to assemble it (I'll add notes about mine on these, just so you know.):

1. Look for a large empty spot in either the living room or any room in the house. Stack the boxes up into some stairs. Glue the boxes together and after it's dry, drape the blanket over them. For mine, I have it in my bedroom using an extra end table, some paintings of mine and some manga magazines. For the blanket, I used a Spiderman blanket as you saw in the second picture.
2. For the emperor and empress, you can use any kind of toys and fit them into the shirts. I would recommend using plushes, so you wouldn't have to cut up the shirts to make the kimonos. For mine, I used my two Build-A-Bears, Steven the Triceratops as the emperor and Daryl the cat as the empress.
3. For the rest, it's three figures on the second shelf and five figures at the bottom. For mine, I just used some ceramic figurines. In a regular Hinamatsuri display, the second-shelf dolls are the court maidens that bring sake (saw-keh, more commonly known in the West as rice wine) and the bottom shelf are the musician that play at the wedding (three drummers, a flute player and a singer).
4. Now for the accessories! Just snip out some ribbon and lots of shapes out of construction paper.* The ribbon will be used as the empress' headdress.
5. Bring in a couple small bowls between the maidens and throw in some candy (it's supposed to bring in extra luck, according to an issue of Shojo Beat!). Put a sheet of yellow or gold paper behind your royal couple and now you're done! ^^

*The things needed to be cut out of paper include:

• The emperor's hat and baton, known as a shaku (shock-koo)
• The empress' fan
• The maidens' sake equipment
• The musicians' instruments, which include three different types of drums, a striped flute and a fan for the singer

Oh, another thing before wrapping this up, you have to put the dolls away exactly on the 3rd of March. According to tradition, it could mean a late marriage for the girls if they're up past that date. My suggestion to avert leaving the display up is to take pictures of it. Anyway, hope you enjoyed, good luck and...

偉大なひなまつりを持っている！ (Have a great Hinamatsuri!)