OHINASAMA

Ohinasama, Hinamatsuri, Momo no Sekku is Japanese Girls’ Day that heralds the coming spring. During the month of February, in many Japanese households, mothers and their little daughters take sets of dolls out of boxes to make them ready for the Hinamatsuri celebration. These are very intimate mother-daughter moments and I regret that I have not incorporated this beautiful holiday into my life from the very first year my daughter was born. We bought a set of Hinakazari figurines for our daughter in her first year of life, because that’s how it’s done in Japan, even from a major manufacturer in Kyoto, but in the hustle and bustle of moving from Japan to the Czech Republic and the worries of everyday life, we forgot about the big boxes in the closet for years. Thanks to Miyabi and you, my guests, I unpack those Hina dolls from their padded packaging for at least a few days every year, air out the mothballs and arrange them according to the prescribed template right at the entrance to the restaurant. It would be a shame not to enjoy their beauty! It would be a shame not to remind ourselves of the message they contain! My daughter is not ten years old anymore, she has grown up and I don’t know if Ohinasama touches her. She probably wouldn’t remember her princess and prince dolls herself. Maybe because we didn’t unpack them together when she was little. I’m very sorry. Feeling that I missed something important, I at least take a picture of the Hina set every year and write my daughter an email saying that they are on display in Miyabi and that we love her. Hinamatsuri is a holiday when the promise of family happiness is passed down from generation to generation and I really hope that this holiday stays alive. It is extremely life-giving.

Secular Nativity Scene Hinakazari
Hinakazari is a secular nativity scene where, instead of the Holy family with the newborn Jesus Christ, the Savior of humanity, just He and She, two figurines, two people, are in the center of attention. They are the promise of a family. In the complete arrangement of puppets and things, their entire household with all their needs and relationships is created on several stair levels. The main actors are Obina and Mebina – Odairisama and Ohinasama. The Emperor and Empress. The Prince and Princess. They sit on the highest level and are the largest and most magnificent dolls. The celebrant is Obina, Princess and Empress Ohinasama in one person, and with her all the girls. He is also important, but he is not talked about as much. Below them on the next step are three beauties who pour sake for both of them and serve them. I understand this to mean that basic human needs must first be satisfied. What we eat and drink and how we eat and drink it is simply of paramount importance. On the next step are the musicians. They express another of the indispensable human needs. That is satisfaction through art. There are five musicians – drums, flute and singing. Only on the fourth step down are practical concerns depicted – yes, it is necessary to ensure food supplies, movable and immovable property, the functioning of society, law and health. And because the dolls were originally created for the imperial daughter in the imperial family, there are two ministers on this step and between them they have the tools necessary for their work. They are the minister of the Left and the minister of the Right. And now pay attention! On the step below them there are three figurines – one laughing, one crying and the third angry. Yes, that is how it is in life – there are moments of joy, but also suffering and often injustice when a person is angry. It is the same for princesses and princes as for every person when they are in a relationship. When they form a couple. Little girls, for whom the dolls were intended for playing and contemplation, should have known at an early age what life is all about. Two more stairsare added to the five steps of life situations. There are chests, tables, dishes and also stretchers for traveling, simply all what is needed in the household – things.

The most popular Hinakazari have for centuries taken the form of figures dressed in costumes from the Heian period (794 – 1185). It was the golden age of the Japanese aristocracy, when robes had many layers and were all brocade and silk. Those who want to be modern may also find Hinakazari made for instance of Barbie dolls. They have beds, televisions as furniture and a luxury car as a means of transportation. Often the large cast is reduced to just the two main actors Obina and Mebina. They don’t have to be dolls, their drawings are enough. I have seen that the roles of people have also been played by rabbits of the hare family. A hare and a hare. He is blue and she is pink. As a decoration and reminder of the Hinamatsuri holiday, mice or teddy bears can also fulfill the roles, but what ever it is, the deepest and most important idea behind the Hinamatsuri holiday can only be fulfilled by us humans, when we help the symbols grow into acts of love. We have to train for this task all our lives.

Hinakazari are a great tool
When I married a Japanese man, I had to learn the female role of wife and mother. I caught my attention that in the Japanese language it is emphasized that, for example, being a mother means “fulfilling the role of a mother”, “working as an ideal mother” – okaasan wo tsutomeru. The word tsutomeru – to perform a profession – outraged me in relation to my motherhood. How my closest relatives and friends must have looked down on me when I ostentatiously promoted my idea that I must be above all myself, an individual, a free and independent woman, an emancipated woman who is equal to a man in everything and who will not let anyone to take her away from her. I did not want to be automatically expected to conform to stereotypes of how I should look and what I should do. I got angry and sometimes cried. And I also laughed, like when I saw how many cute aprons every mother has and dresses. Motherhood and an apron simply belonged together. Nevertheless, Japan, with its holidays, drew me into the vortex of life and changed me a lot. When I was sixty years old and happened to stand in front of a two-meter statue by Niki de Saint Phalle in the Pompidou Gallery in Paris, entitled The Bride, I was outraged and and even little angry at the artist’s rebellion, and yet I understood her so much. The statue attracted me. I knew how great a struggle every woman goes through when she gives her life for the life that is emerging. As a mother of four children, I remembered my shortcomings and transgressions. They were also hung on that statue. At the time, I wished that there in the galllery would also be a sculpture of ObinaMebina, and that they would be figures without pacifiers, strollers, and other accessories, a couple that would most of all radiate an ideal – the power of sincere reciprocity, from which new is born, because there is no other way.

Conveying the message to little girls in the spirit of Ohinasama that they have a mission ahead of them, that it is a beautiful mission, that they must learn this mission, and that they would not be able to handle it on their own without help is in itself a gift for mothers, their daughters, and the entire family of humans. The Japanese custom of Hinamatsuri certainly has its analogues in many communities around the world. And perhaps it would be interesting to put them side by side and draw lessons and inspiration from them. It would also be important to examine how expectations are deformed, how roles are enforced on girls and women in different countries. Or how the passing on of wisdom from generation to generation gets lost in the abundance of interests and enjoyments, until in the end only a decoration remains that no longer has the power to speak and make a difference.

The Hinamatsuri holiday has a rich plot. I like it because it is playful, promotes beauty, is full of symbols and manages to captivate with its practical tasks. Where there are two and where there is eating and drinking, there is good. So let’s toast in the spirit of the Japanese Ohinasama with a sweet amazake drink, eat a bowl of chirashi sushi rice with spring delicacies, drink soup with a large clam that has two parts of the shell as a symbol of inseparable partnership, enjoy sexy pink-yellow-green diamond-shaped sweets and in this way, let’s remain cheerful, full of the desire to transform symbols into acts of love. And it doesn’t matter what situation we are in and what tools and conditions we have.

Your Miyabi Darja