Nicole Sato, GVJCI Program Coordinator
Ah plum blossoms, hinaningyo, chirashi sushi, and hina-arare. Sounds like it's March 3rd, Hinamatsuri!
Hinamatsuri is celebrated in Japan and in many Japanese families around the world in celebration of young girls' health, happiness, and prosperity. Japanese Heian style dolls known as Hinaningyo (雛人形) are displayed in homes, cultural centers, and schools, parents are busy cooking chirashi for dinner, and sweet and salty hina-arare are eaten as snacks on this day. Plum blossom season is right around the corner and are often on display near the dolls as well.
"Hey! I want to celebrate it too," you say? Well, you can!
Follow this blog post so that you can celebrate at home! 🍴 (Where's the chopsticks emoji, huh!?)
Hinamatsuri is celebrated in Japan and in many Japanese families around the world in celebration of young girls' health, happiness, and prosperity. Japanese Heian style dolls known as Hinaningyo (雛人形) are displayed in homes, cultural centers, and schools, parents are busy cooking chirashi for dinner, and sweet and salty hina-arare are eaten as snacks on this day. Plum blossom season is right around the corner and are often on display near the dolls as well.
"Hey! I want to celebrate it too," you say? Well, you can!
Follow this blog post so that you can celebrate at home! 🍴 (Where's the chopsticks emoji, huh!?)
Chirashi Sushi チラシ寿司
Wait, what's chirashi sushi? If you're thinking of the fancy shmancy ones you eat at the restaurants with the maguro and uni, back up like 10 steps. This is the traditional kind, the one you can easily make at home without selling your kidney to buy the uni.
Chirashi sushi translates to "scattered sushi," sometimes called Gomoku chirashi, and also called Bara sushi in Kansai regions.
Recipes differ from region to region, household to household, but it mainly consists of shiitake mushrooms, (kinshitamago), stripped egg, carrots, burdock root, lotus root, etc. etc. Some people do choose to put some ikura (salmon eggs) on top as decoration.
Got you hungry? Get the recipe here!
"Okay, but what else can I do?"
If you've got a local Japanese market nearby, try and find some hina-arare and amazake. Both should be relatively easy to find and might even have a corner for Hinamatsuri.
If you've got hinaningyo's already, great! If not, you can always draw them 😏, get a little crafty with polymer clay, or make them out of origami!
Okay, to finish off, how about one more recipe. Let's go with the hamaguri ushio-jiru, or clear clam soup.
Why clams? Clams have two sides, right? And those two sides are made to only fit each other (it was once a game in Japan!) and will not fit perfectly with another clam shell. Clams were put into the Hinamatsuri tradition in hopes that girls will find a good "fit" (harhar) or partner later in life.
So, did you learn anything new? Going to try out anything from the post? Let us know in the comments! Happy Hinamatsuri! 🌸
So, did you learn anything new? Going to try out anything from the post? Let us know in the comments! Happy Hinamatsuri! 🌸
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