Kobayashi Doll Museum

Welcome to the Kobayashi Doll Museum of Tokyo. This is the museum where your children will love going again and again. You will get back to your childhood days as you walk around the museum. This museum has in store all the traditional dolls of Japan. Doll making in Japan has its own history.

About the museum

The Kobayashi Doll Museum is quite small. Visit this small museum to gain first-hand knowledge about the traditional method of handcrafting Japanese dolls, an art that has been acclaimed worldwide.

Doll making in Japan has its own history. The traditional dolls in Japan are commonly known as "ningyo" which means "human figure" in Japanese. Expert Alan Pate mentions that temple records refer to the making of a grass doll to be endowed and thrown into the river at Ise Shrine in 3 B.C.; the custom was probably even more ancient, but it is at the root of the modern Doll Festival or Hina Matsuri. The first professional doll makers were likely temple sculptors, who used their skill to make painted wooden images of children or the Saga dolls.

The museum houses various kinds of Japanese dolls, some corresponding to children and babies, some the imperial court, warriors and heroes, fairy-tale characters, gods and demons, and also people of the daily life of Japanese cities. Dolls like those displayed here are seen in Japanese homes on "Girl's Day" (March 3rd). There are many conventional dolls made for household shrines, for formal gift-giving.

While you visit this museum, you may hear a song "Ohina-sama rainen-mo gozare. Sangatsu sakura hanami-sa gozare" which means "We will see the dolls again next year. In March, we see the cherry blossoms." This ditty is an old refrain which little girls sang after their dolls were packed away at the end of the annual doll festival.

The Hina Matsuri or Doll Festival

The Hina Matsuri or Doll Festival or Girl's Festival is a very popular festival in Japan. On this eve, families with girls wish their daughters a successful and happy life. Dolls are exhibited in the house together with peach blossoms. The doll festival has its beginning in a Chinese tradition in which bad fortune is transferred to dolls and then removed by abandoning the doll on a river. On Hina Matsuri, sweet sake is drunk and chirashi sushi is eaten.

A visit to the Kobayashi Doll Museum will surely enthrall you. You will get the feel of a fairyland in this museum. You will simply fall in love with this museum and think of revisiting his place.

Hotels in Tokyo
Tobu Levate (Formerly The Marriott Kinshicho Tobu) Hotel	Yaesu Terminal Hotel
Asakusa View Hotel	Mitsui Urban Ginza Hotel
Ginza Nikko Hotel	Apa Nihonbashi Ekimae Hotel