The flower that is most beloved by the Japanese people and that symbolizes Japan is the cherry blossom. From the cherry blossom which blooms and falls only within a week or so, the Japanese sense beauty, as well as transience, melancholy, and perhaps graceful resignation.
The lyricism of the Japanese people has been closely connected with this flower from ancient times; since the Heian Period (794-1185), it has been often included in classical Japanese poems. From the early years of the Shōwa Period (1926-1989) until the Second World War, the way that the cherry blossom quickly and gracefully falls was appropriated into militarism to beauty the deaths of the suicide units. Today, Japan has sent cherry trees with their beauty overseas as a symbol of peace, and their light pink flowers bloom every spring, for example, beside the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., and on the remains of the Berlin Wall.
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.
