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Scope and Contents Hina-ningyō dolls are used in the Hina-matsuri or Girl’s Day Festival.  The term hina is a contraction of the word hiina, meaning ‘small and lovely’ and was applied to many different miniature forms, such as models of buildings, but is most generally associated with dolls.  Hina-ningyō can be literally translated as ‘miniature human figure’ or ‘doll’.  With the development of the Girl’s Day Festival in the early Edo period (17th through mid-19th centuries), the term hina-ningyō came to be...