Open-air doll display seen to lure more tourists to old castle town in southwestern Japan

February 26, 2017

Open-air doll display seen to lure more tourists to old castle town in southwestern Japan

The small open-air theater for "hina" dolls became a playground for kids on the fine weekend in late February.
The theater was actually a flight of stone steps toward up to Kuromon Gate, the publicly designated cultural asset, to the Akizuki Castle ruins in Asakura City, Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan.
The event was timed to coincide with the traditional Hima Matsuri festival for the Girls Day of March 3.
The hina doll display in Akizuki started in 2016 as an off-season event to attract more tourists to the old castle town.
Big collections of hina dolls are displayed as attractions at many tourist spots across the country around this time of the year.
This kind of event has become less rarer than before, but open-air exhibitions of hina dolls cannot be seen everywhere.
"We have this year a total of 250 hina dolls, contributed by 60 families in Asakura City, " an organizer said at the display site.

The dolls stand on a red carpet put on the stone steps, and on both sides of the carpet are big paper cranes, to be lit as illuminations at night.
"We place the dolls on the carpet and take them back every day, but we do not bring them out when rainfall is expected."

The hina doll display was organized as a part of the "Hina Meguri" tour in Akizuki, in which tourists can collect stamps at 18 places, mainly restaurants and shops, while strolling around the castle ruins.
When they collect seven stamps on the form, they can have souvenirs by lottery.
Asakura is a largely rural, calm town, but it boasts of being geographically close to major cities, such as Fukuoka, the most populous city in Kyushu, southwestern Japan.
"We have a lot of tourists here in Akizuki in the cherry blossom viewing season around April and in the autumn colored leaves season, but we want to have more tourists to Akizuki in other seasons, too, in order to help boost the town as a whole," the organizer said.