OBSERVANCES AND PASTIMES
see the light again until the third month of the following year. There is no doubt that the idea of this dolls' festival came from China, but the development that it received after its adoption by the Japanese amounts to complete metamorphosis. The Chinese conception was that the first "serpent-day"[1] in the third month should be devoted to exorcising the evil influences to which each person is individually exposed. For that purpose an exorcist supplied a paper puppet, with which the recipient rubbed his body. This nade-mono (literally, rubbing thing) was then returned to the exorcist, who performed certain rites over it. By and by it became customary to range the nade-mono of a household on a shelf with offerings of wine and food, and out of that habit grew the o-hina-sama. It is a record fairly illustrating the changes undergone by the customs of the East-Asian continent after transplantation to Japanese soil.
Tradition says that when Sakyamuni was born a dragon appeared and poured water over the babe. The incident is commemorated in Japan on the fourth day of the fourth month, when the "washing of Buddha" (kwan-butsu or yoku-butsu) takes place. An image of the god — a birthday Buddha (tanjo-butsu)—is set up in a hall decorated with flowers, and each worshipper pours water or amacha (a decoction of
hydrangea leaves) over the effigy from a tiny
- ↑ See Appendix, note 21.
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