Suruga Hina Ningyo

You can tell by the arms

The maker's character shows in the body and the choice of fabric, but most of all in udeori, bending the doll's arms into its pose. It is the last skill a maker learns, and it matters so much that among 100 dolls in a row you could tell whose work each one is. Shizuoka makes about 70 percent of Japan's hina doll bodies. Neri-tenjin, moulded figures of the scholar Tenjin, are made too. It is made in Shizuoka, Yaizu, Fujieda, Fuji and nearby towns in Shizuoka.

Straw, wire and pose

• Rice straw is wound tightly to make the body.
• Wire arms and legs are wrapped in wood wool and joined to it.
• The costume is dressed on.
• Finally the arms are bent into a pose.
• For neri-tenjin, paulownia powder and wheat starch are pressed into moulds, dried for about ten days, then given a crown, hair, face, costume and stand.

From Tenjin to hina

Suruga dolls trace back to neri-tenjin, begun when clay craftsmen were invited from Mino to make clay dolls. Costumed tenjin followed, and one made in 1853 survives. In Shizuoka, tenjin dolls were given for a boy's birth and imperial-couple hina dolls for a girl's. Many homes display both on 3 April, a month later than elsewhere, to celebrate girls and boys together.