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雛がたり

by Kyōka Izumi

Dolls for the Girls’ Festival, and a phantom from the author’s memory.

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Original language: JapaneseLevel: Advanced3,449 characters · ≈ 14 minSource: 青空文库

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Sample: three-line reading

Each word has its meaning in this sentence underneath, and each sentence has a full translation. Read the original and glance down only when you need to.

雛dolls (hina dolls)女夫雛the man and woman dolls (a pair of hina dolls)はas for (topic marker)言うもさらなりneedless to say (it goes without saying)
Dolls—needless to say, the man and woman dolls.
桜雛cherry blossom dolls柳雛willow dolls花菜の雛flower-seed dolls桃の花雛peach blossom dolls白とwhite and緋とscarlet and紫の色の菫雛purple-colored violet dolls
Cherry blossom dolls, willow dolls, flower seed dolls, peach blossom dolls, white and red, and purple violet dolls.
鄙にはin the countrysideつくしhorsetail (field horsetail)鼓草の雛dolls of drum grass
In the countryside, horsetail and drum grass dolls.
相合傘shared umbrellaのof / under (linking particle)春雨spring rain雛dolls
Spring rain dolls under a shared umbrella.

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About the book

This passage catalogs the many kinds of Hina dolls and festival arrangements, with details of dishes, vessels, and colors. It then shifts into memory, recalling the mother's dolls from childhood as something distant and dreamlike like a dragon palace, with a delicate, hazy, wistful feel.

Cultural notes (selection)

Background a translation can’t carry: social roles, history and allusions. While reading, tap “Note” at the end of a sentence to see them all.

女夫雛 Customs

Refers to the paired male and female dolls on the hina display shelf at the Hina Festival (March 3rd, the Dolls' Festival), modelled on court dress and called "dairi-bina." The five musicians and court ladies mentioned below are subordinate figures on the hina shelf, arranged on several tiers according to rank, collectively called the 雛壇.

曲水 Allusion

"曲水の宴" refers to an elegant gathering on the third day of the third month, when water was channelled into a winding stream in a garden and wine cups floated along it while guests composed poems. The Hina Festival falls on the same day as the Jōshi festival, and screens on the hina shelf often depict this scene, so here it is listed with the peach blossoms and snow lanterns as a seasonal decoration.

毛氈 Customs

The Japanese word 毛氈 refers to a thick felt cloth mat, used since the Edo period to cover hina shelves and flower-viewing seats, and usually red in colour.

About the author

Izumi Kyōka (real name Izumi Kyōtarō; 4 November 1873 – 7 September 1939) was a Japanese novelist, writer, and kabuki playwright active in the prewar period. He was known for a Romanticism favoring supernatural tales influenced by the Edo period, and is considered one of the supreme stylists of modern Japanese literature.

How the glosses are made

Word glosses and sentence translations are generated in context by AI models (DeepSeek and Zhipu GLM), and every word is checked to have a gloss. AI can make mistakes; you can report problems from the book page.

FAQ

Is this the original text?

Yes. The library holds the opening section of the public-domain original, taken from 青空文库.

Do I need to pay or sign up?

Library books are free to read without an account. Other gloss languages and importing your own texts need an account and credits.

What level is it?

This one is marked “Advanced”. Every word is glossed, so you can keep reading even with a small vocabulary.

Can I use another gloss language?

English and Chinese glosses are prepared in advance; signed-in readers can generate other languages.

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