sweets ahead of cherry season

sweets from Tsuruya Yoshinobu and akafuku , both long established confectioneries.
Haiku on the package by Yamaguchi Seishi goes;
This house has a luck
Swarrows come over
To build their nest
Prior to cherry blossom season, sweets are hinting the blossoms, spring.

family emblem for the nobility

There are traditional patterns for the court nobles. They came over from ancient China and later got Japanized. They have been marked on the costumes and furniture as family emblem.

this is what we got when she tried kimono for court-ladies on. It is called ‘mukai-cho’, and represents “two butterflies facing each other.

a town of Hina dolls

this town of Hina dolls is also the home of merchants and has kept its traditional storehouses.

The box of fire extinguisher on the street has something on top of it,,, which is another set of the imperial hina dolls.

Hina dolls on a scroll

kakejiku , Japanese hanging scroll, is changed in tune with the season of Girls’ day.
standing type of imperial dolls on the scroll is closer to the origin of Hina dolls.

a little different types of Hina dolls

Hina dolls on a picnic in the garden
In some areas, they hang two pairs of 55 different kinds of lucky charms on strings, wishing their daughters’ happiness and health. Handmade crafts out of antique cloth by women.

Ichimatsu Dolls

ichimatsu dolls are a type of traditional Japanese dolls. They have bobbed hair and placed at the foot of the stairs.

The imperial palace

The imperial couple is sitting inside the palace on the left.
the warrior-guardians are standing and the manservants are by the fire in the garden The court ladies are table setting on the corridor. the ladies are playing the fan tossing game.

household equipments in the court

On the lower tiers, they have household equipments.
a cow carriage for the noble family... A set of tea things with a peacock painted on top of the shelf
chest of drawers. snow covered Mt. Fuji on the left of the sliding window, a vermillion shrine gate and flying birds on the right.

the court ladies and the musicians

The second tier holds three court ladies ‘san-nin kanjo’’. Each holds sake equipment.
The third tier holds five male musicians ‘gonin bayashi’. Each holds a musical instrument, which are a small drum, large drum, hand drum, flute. the singer holds a folding fan(out of this photo).