Hello Everyone!

In this series of articles, we’d like to focus on Japanese traditional & seasonal dishes. Today’s topic will be traditional dishes eaten on “Hina-matsuri” day.

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In japan, the Doll Festival called “Hina-Matsuri” takes place on March 3rd.

The aim of this event is to wish for health and safety of your young daughter by displaying a set of Hina-Ningyo (ornamental doll) at home and having special dishes served on the day.

Families get together and enjoy delicious traditional dishes such as, Chirashi-zushi, Hamaguri Osuimono, Hina-arare, Hishimochi and drinking Amazake.

-What’s Hishimochi?

Hishimochi is a 3-tired diamond-shaped finger snack, which has 3 different colours in each layer to wish for health and safety.

To be a little bit more specific, (1) the red/pink color is regarded as repelling evils, and (2)the white color symbolizes a log life and purity. (3) the green color stands for health and preventing sickness.

-Why Clam Soup (Hamaguri Osuimono)?

Clams symbolize the best couple because a pair of clam shells fits perfectly and they have to be the original pair to do that. This is basically to wish your daughter a perfect husband and happy marriage in the future.

Why/ What’s Chirashi-Zushi?

Chirashi-zushi is sushi-rice topped with raw fish and other ingredients, and is served on a big plate that people help themselves.

Since it’s made with a lot of different ingredients, it is to hope that the daughter won’t go through starvation at any stage of her life.

Just to name a few important ingredients, prawns and lotus roots are regarded as bringing good fortune: Prawn symbolise a long life until people have bent legs, and Lotus roots are regarded as foreseeing the future through its holes.

-What’s Hina-arare and Ama-sake?

Hina-arare are bite-sized sweet rice crackers whose colours are pink, green, yellow and white. People also drink Amazake, a sweet drink made from fermented rice.

As you can see, the ornamental dolls and special dishes are prepared all for wishing much happiness for their young daughters.

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Japan has many seasonal foods and traditional Japanese sweets. As Japan’s leading culinary school in Tokyo, we are open for anyone who’s interested in Japanese Dishes. Please check our menu and class schedule below, and please feel free to contact us for your inquiry!

https://abccooking-t.jp/japan/

(Source of today’s article: https://yolo-english.jp/doll-festival-442 and https://business-eigo-global.com/writing/hinamatsuri)