Perspectives

Rare Life-Size Hina Dolls Impress in Okabe-Shuku, Shizuoka Prefecture

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By Ryuzo Suzuki / Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Photographer

13:43 JST, March 1, 2026

FUJIEDA, Shizuoka — Every year around the time of the Doll Festival, there is a rare display of 15 life-size hina dolls in Okabe-shuku, a former post town on the Tokaido route. The route is one of the five major highways developed during the Edo period (1603-1867) starting from Nihombashi in Edo (present-day Tokyo). Okabe-shuku is now in Fujieda, Shizuoka Prefecture.

The size of the dolls makes them photogenic in the social media era, and they have become a topic of conversation in recent years.

By Ryuzo Suzuki / Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Photographer
A rear view of the 15 life-size hina dolls. The costumes incorporate Nishijin-ori fabrics from Kyoto.

Hina dolls are displayed in homes on the March 3 festival for girls to pray for their happiness. A 15-doll set typically features, from top to bottom: one pair of imperial court dolls (dairi bina), three court ladies (sannin kanjo), five musicians (gonin bayashi), two guardians (zuishin) and three servants (shicho).

By Ryuzo Suzuki / Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Photographer
Hina dolls, from the “Goten-kazari” display, exhibited alongside the life-size dolls. This Kyoto-style display, passed down through the Yamauchi family, is located across from the exhibition hall. It features over 40 dolls placed in three buildings modeled after the Kyoto Imperial Palace’s halls. The wooden storage boxes bear the inscription “Ansei 3” (1856) and are designated as tangible cultural properties of Fujieda.

While standard dolls are typically 10 to 20 centimeters tall, the ones displayed here are about 10 times larger. The seated dolls measure 80 to 90 centimeters tall, and the attendants reach about 120 centimeters.

These dolls were crafted by the second-generation master dollmaker Yoshimitsu Yabuzaki (1901–1992) of Yoshimitsu Ningyoten, which has its workshop in the Okabe district. After retiring, he retrained and spent about five years creating them from 1965 to 1969. After seeing life-size kabuki puppets in Asakusa, Tokyo, he resolved to create life-size hina dolls to improve his own skills. Hina doll making is one of Shizuoka Prefecture’s local industries. The long-established Yoshimitsu Ningyoten, founded in 1896, operates a retail store in Shizuoka City.

By Ryuzo Suzuki / Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Photographer
At the historical museum Okabe-shuku Ohatago Kashibaya, the garden also retains traces of the Edo period.

It is said that he made nearly 40 dolls, 15 of which were donated to the former Okabe Town, now part of Fujieda, where they began the exhibition in 2006. Each doll has distinct facial features, allowing visitors to observe in detail everything from solemn expressions to playful ones.

A female office worker in her 30s from Hekinan, Aichi Prefecture, who visited the exhibition with her relatives from Fujieda, said, “I was overwhelmed by their size and atmosphere.”

Meanwhile, the building housing these dolls is formally known as Okabe-shuku Ohatago Kashibaya, an inn founded in 1707. The current structure was built around 1836 and strongly retains the appearance of the Edo period. Designated as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property and recognized as a component cultural asset of Japan Heritage, it is now open to the public as a historical museum conveying the atmosphere of that era.

By Ryuzo Suzuki / Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Photographer
Exterior of Okabe-shuku Ohatago Kashibaya, which faces the former Tokaido highway

The museum is closed on Mondays. Admission for adults is ¥300, but it is free for junior high school students and younger. The life-size hina doll exhibition runs until April 5.