Exhibition Room 2　Japan's Ningyo from the Collection

Gogatsu Ningyo

For the annual celebration on the fifth of the fifth month, banners and helmets were displayed outdoors. Those exterior decorations gradually grew more splendid, eventually developing into the koinobori, a carp bravely swimming through the sky.
From the latter half of the eighteenth century, fifth-month celebration decorations were also displayed indoors. Thus was born the gogatsu ningyo (fifth-month ningyo), featuring heroic figures such as Empress Jingu, the plague-expelling deity Shoki, and Kintaro. Their courageous figures carry prayers for the healthy growth of male children.