Hinamatsuri occurs on March 3 and is an occasion to pray for young girls’ growth and happiness. Most homes with girls display dolls for the Doll’s Festival and dedicate to them peach blossoms, rice cake cubes, special colored and diamond-shaped rice cakes, white sake, and other items. The origin of hinamatsuri is an ancient Chinese practice in which the sin of the body and misfortune are transferred to a doll and washed away by setting the doll in a river to drift away. When this practice spread to Japan, it was linked to girl’s playing with dolls and, in the Edo Period (1603-1867), was developed into the hinamatsuri.
Hina are small dolls for girls and have existed since the Heian Period (794-1185). They took their present from in the Edo Period (1603-1867). A “doll Emperor and Empress in ancient costume,” patterned after the Emperor and Empress, are placed on the highest tier of a five- or seven-tiered stand covered with a red carpet, and under them come the “Minister of the Right, Minister of the Left,” the “three court ladies,” and the “five court musicians,” among others. However, in recent times, more and more homes have simplified this by setting out only the Emperor and Empress dolls.
White, concentrated saké is called shirozaké. The manufacturing process is different form regular sake; it is made by blending a sweet kind of sake and low-class distilled spirits (shōchū) with steamed glutinous rice and rice malt. It is not a regular alcoholic beverage; with its sweetness, it is mostly drunk by women and girls on special days like the Doll’s Festival (Hina-Matsuri). Meanwhile, amazaké also has a sweet taste and is served mainly at Shinto shrines for New Year’s and other festivals and is also drunk in homes in the cold winter. This sake is brewed by blending malted rice with rice gruel.
Risshun (the first day of spring) comes between Tōji (the Winter Solstice) and Shunbun (the Vernal Equinox). Risshun arrives around February 4 in the solar calendar. Setsubun is the day preceding Risshun. On Setsubun night, roasted soybeans are scattered both inside and outside the house with cries of, “Out with the demons, in with good fortune!” Afterward, people eat the same number of beans as their age. Setsubun bean throwing is also celebrated at large temples and shrines.
──『心にひびく日本のしきたり TIES WITH THE PAST; Japanese Customs, Traditions and Manners』酒井信彦・監修（講談社バイリンガル・ブックス／2011年）
The ten calendar signs and the twelve signs of the zodiac
Jikkan-Jūnishi are a method of placing order on time and space and were created in ancient China. The ten signs called jikkan and the twelve signs called jūnishi, independently or in combination, express dates, years, months, times and directions. The combination of jikkan and jūnishi is also called the sexagenary cycle (eto), but now the term eto chiefly refers only to jūnishi, the signs of which correspond to twelve kinds of animals; rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, serpent, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, boar. Saying, “I was born in the year of the dog.” Expresses one’s age, and the animal expressing that year is drown on New Year’s cards. Moreover, when one turns 60, there is the custom of celebrating it as kanreki (which in Japan is actually the 61st birthday, counted at the beginning of the year rather than at the end as in Western countries, hence, kanreki means that one has lived 60 complete years), because the combination of jikkan, on the decimal scale, and jūnishi, on the duodecimal scale, complete a full cycle and return to the original combination of the year when one was born.
──『日本文化を英語で紹介する事典 A Bilingual Handbook on Japanese Culture【第３版】』杉浦洋一＋John K. Gillespie（ナツメ社／2004年）
