How Many Hina-Dolls Set (Girls' Festival Doll Set) Does A Japanese Family Have?

March 3rd is the traditional Girls' Festival Day called "Hina-Matsuri" in Japan. It is one of the major seasonal events though it is not a national holiday. People display special dolls set called "Hina-dolls" which represent a prince and a princess, a happily married couple, with their attendants, and the imperial court people. The display is decorated with  peach flowers and offerings such as diamond-shaped colorful rice-cakes (Hishimochi) or a special rice-crackers (Hina-Arare) shown in the lower right hand side photos to wish girls' healthy growth and happy marriage.

Most families who have daughters celebrate this day with a kind of Sushi called Chirashi-zushi, clam soup, and white opaque non-alcohol drink called Ama-Zake (Sweet Sake) which is made of sake lees and sugar.

Regarding the Hina-dolls, the traditional full set is pretty big. It is displayed on 7 stairs covered by a red cloth shown in the left hand side photo. Prince and Princess couple is put on the top of the stairs, the second step from the top is for three maids, the third is for five musicians, and there are ministers, soldiers, dishes and furniture on rest of the steps.

However, nowadays it is difficult for many families to have a full set of "Hina-dolls" because it requires a big space in the house. Various smaller sets are available. as long as a doll set includes a prince and princess wearing ancient noble's formal kimono as shown in the upper right hand side photo, it is considered "Hina-dolls". Therefore, size-wise and price-wise there is a wide range of "Hina-dolls". A gorgeous full set can be several hundreds of thousand Yen (several thousand dollars) or more.

When a family has a baby girl, they usually prepare "Hina-dolls" for their baby when the baby has her first "Hina-Matsuri" celebration. Sometimes the parents buy the dolls or it can be the grand-parents buying the dolls for their grand daughter to wish her healthy growth and happiness.

What happens if the parents have a second daughter? And a third daughter? Will the family skip buying "Hina-dolls" again? Actually many girls would have their own "Hina-dolls" in these days. Since the dolls are usually bought for a baby girl at her first Hina-Matsuri to wish her health and happiness, it seems that many parents think it's better to be fair for each daughter.

Thus a family may keep increasing the number of "Hina-dolls" set if they have many daughters. Moreover the mother might keep her own "Hina-dolls" set in their house, too. Then the dolls can occupy a quite big space in their closets. However, birth rate is decreasing in Japan to fewer than two children per a family, so probably most people are not worried about the space problem.

Anyway, happy "Hina-Matsuri"!!