Hina doll at Awashima Jinja in Wakayama prefecture. Many Japanese people believe that dolls have souls, so instead of throwing them in the garbage, they take them to a shrine where they are blessed and ritually burned or thrown into the sea.
Other posts with pictures of Awashima Jinja:
https://www.meanwhile-in-japan.com/?s=awashima
Editor’s note: this post was originally published in December 2008 and has been updated.
thank you for posting this. I had no idea of this practice and am fascinated by it. I appreciate your discussion and description of it all. It must be quite a sight to see the boat(s) go out in March with all of those beautiful dolls toppling into the water.