Today, traditional annual events are believed to play an important role in early childhood education in Japanese kindergartens and nurseries. This paper examines how traditional annual events were introduced and established in kindergarten education in Japan and clarifies how the content of these events and ways of celebrating them were modified depending on the period. In particular, this paper focuses on the Doll Festival.
With the adoption of the new calendar in 1873, the Meiji government abolished the “Gosekku” (the five seasonal festivals); accordingly, the Doll Festival declined. However, from the 1890sto the 1900s, the Doll Festival was revived against the backdrop of rising nationalism and as a commercial strategy for promoting the sale of dolls by department stores. For example, it was confirmed that Aisyu Kindergarten in Osaka started celebrating the Doll Festival around 1910. Then, from the Taisho to the early Showa period, the Doll Festival spread extensively in kindergartens throughout Japan.
In the Meiji and the Taisho periods, the main purpose of the Doll Festival was to participate in the festival on March 3 and enjoy playing with dolls. Songs, plays, storytelling, and other activities related to the Doll Festival were only partially introduced into daily life. In contrast, after the early Showa period, traditional annual events, including the Doll Festival, were placed in the kindergarten curriculum, which implies that the educational value of the Doll Festival was formally recognized. As a result, kindergarten teachers tried to integrate various activities (manufacturing, songs, plays, storytelling, etc.) under the subject matter of the Doll Festival. In addition, along with the festival itself, the process of preparing for the festival also held educational value. The Doll Festival was planned so that children could take part in the preparation with enthusiasm and organize events in cooperation with their friends and teachers.
