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Jeepney Press / Alma Fatagani-Sato
By: Alma Fatagani-Sato
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The Doll’s Festival (Hinamatsuri) also known as The Girls’ Day is a special day celebrated every March 3rd to wish for girls to grow up in good health and happiness.
The days preceding the festival, young girls hold parties with their friends and enjoy eating these special foods prepared for the festival while playing the traditional game called Kai-awase. This is a shell-matching game (kai meaning clam and awase meaning matching) played originally by nobles in the Heian Era. The inside of the shells were painted with a picture and the rule of the game is to find the matching shells. It’s very similar to the western Memory Game, the only difference is that, cards are used instead of shells. The typical special foods are:
Arare (also known as kakimochi in other countries like Hawaii) are three-colored, small bite-size rice crackers that shaped like pellets of snow, which makes it different from the Japanese senbei (rice crackers). They are made of popped glutinous rice and flavored with soy sauce. Each color of these rice crackers have meaning: White represents the earth of the winter, pink and red represent life, while green represents the green shoots in the spring. It is believed that if you eat each color, you will be healthy during the year. Nowadays, it comes in many colors, sizes and varieties.
Chirashizushi (scattered sushi) is a type of sushi made with sh, shrimp, raw vegetables, denbu (pink colored fish floss) and kinshi tamago (thinly shredded egg) on the top of vinegared rice. The Dodomese of Fukuoka of Bizen Province (Setouchi City) is said to be the very origin of this type of sushi. There are various styles of chirashizushi and as such, the ingredients may also vary depending on each region, namely-- Edomae (Edo style), Gomokuzushi (Kansai style), Sakezushi (Kyushu style), Tekonezushi (Mie Prefecture), and Barazushi (Okayama Prefecture). It is also called Okayama-zushi, Bizen-zushi and Matsuri-zushi (which are the commercial names of barazushi box lunches).
Hishimochi is a multicolored rhomboid-shaped rice cake layers, which represents fertility. The colors of the three (3) layers from top to bottom are red or pink, white, and green. The red layer is colored using the gardenia fruit, the white using the water caltrop and the green using mugwort. Depending on region, the red may be substituted with yellow, or it may have 5 or 7 layers instead.
Amazake literally means sweet alcohol but is safe for children to drink since it has less than 1 percent of alcohol in it. It is a traditional Japanese drink made from fermented rice. People usually drink it hot during the cold winter days. You can buy it anywhere usually packed in glass bottles, cans or tetra bricks.
Sakuramochi is a pink-colored rice cake (mochi) with a red bean paste (anko) filling, wrapped in a pickled sakura (cherry blossom) leaf. Different regions of Japan have different styles of sakuramochi. Kanto-style uses shiratama-ko (refined rice flour) to make the rice cake, and Kansai-style uses dōmyōji-ko (glutinous rice our). Sakuramochi is usually eaten during the spring season, especially on Girl's Day (hinamatsuri) and at flower viewing parties.
Ushiojiru (clam soup) is a clear soup with clams as the main ingredient, flavored with salt and sake (Japanese wine). Since the symmetrical shells snugly t each other, it is a symbol of unity and peace of a couple.
Some other foods enjoyed during the Doll’s Festival may also include the ichigo daifuku (soft, chewy rice cake with strawberries wrapped in red bean paste filling) and inarizushi (deep fried sweet tofu pockets, filled with rice).
My personal favorite is the amazake. It’s low on calories since there’s no sugar content and it gives the energy boost you need whenever you feel tired. Drinking it is also believed to keep your skin and hair beautiful. If you happen to be in Japan during this festival, try to enjoy the taste of these special foods.
Alma Fatagani-Sato / Jeepney Press
