Nina stared at the gracious doll representing the Empress for the Heian period, recently given to her by her Mother. The layers of several colored silk fabrics were delicately decorated with beautiful, gold designs of stems, leaves and cherry blossoms. Her Mother last night had explained that the next day, March 3rd, was Hinamatsuri, the festival of girls.
"But why with dolls of the Heian period?" Nina had asked, leading her Mother to one of her wonderfully narrated stories. This is how Nina remembered it…
"Long ago, before Hinamatsuri existed, in the Heian period, a young girl of the age nine had just received a doll of a san-nin kanjo (a court lady) holding a sake-filler. She loved this doll, and she soonly named it April.
"Winry took April everywhere, from the market next to her house, to across the sea in the family's canoe. The good spirits guided her safely through her journeys; not being seen as they gracefully pranced around, helping other folks on the way. Winry had heard of bad spirits a few times, but not once encountered one.
The dawn of March 3rd, Winry was out harvesting the peaches, as was everyone else who grew the sweet plump fruit trees. She passed a hollowed out tree, where squirrels usually hibernated. Winry, being her usual curious self, poked her face in, and looked around the leave- covered room, looking for some sign of a bushy tailed mammal, but ended up face-to-face to a recognizable bad spirit!
"Winry could see every detail on his face, from the black eyes that reflected on light nor image to the wrinkles on his forehead, caused by angered pushed down eyebrows. She recognized him from her studies; he was Koku, meaning black after his dark eyes and frail skin color.
"Winry, surprised by the sudden 'greeting', thrust herself backwards, dropping April beside her. Koku popped out of his hiding spot, giving Winry no time to pick up her beloved doll. Mai waited in the background to see if anything would happen. If he made a move, she could order the other good spirits to help her…but how?
Koku swiftly caught hold of her shoulders, and flashed a nasty smile of yellow and black teeth. Winry's pupils grew larger in freight, just as a bright light appeared in the corner of her right eye.
Katsu and Shin had brought April, the doll, to her feet, and was growing by the second till she was the same size of Winry! Koku backed away slowly from the doll, unsure of what was happening. He mostly un-expected that the doll would form a globe of white light in the center of her belly, that forcefully sucked him in, like a tornado.
"The doll shrunk back to size, maybe a bit bigger. As soon as the news spread, the O-hina-sama (Empress) named that day to be celebrated as 'Hinamatsuri' every March 3rd, the festival of girls, peaches, and most importantly, dolls!"
Nina smiled down at her own doll, her eyes now filled with more brilliant light then before. She hugged her Mother good night, now knowing she had no reason to be scared.