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Hina-Matsuri (Girl's Day)

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:06 pm
by Sir Nelson
Hina-matsuri is Girl’s Day in Japan, and is celebrated on March 3rd.

Image

In this MOC, a family gathers to celebrate the day with the pounding of mochi (rice cakes) in the traditional style - hammering it inside a large stone bowl. For those who have never seen this before, one person wets their hands and reaches into the bowl between hammer blows to fold the mochi over - timing is crucial! Everyone else helps to roll the mochi into smaller pieces.

A hina-ningyo doll is on display inside the house, along with something else... :D Don’t forget to enjoy the cherry blossoms!

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:24 pm
by Glencaer
First off, great MOCs. You're truly one of the masters of detail. And then I was looking at this picture and suddenly started laughing. I won't say why, but bravo Mr. Nelson! Bravo!

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 6:01 pm
by Rosh.Gonff
Hmm... Looks like they have a... visitor :D

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 6:29 pm
by SavaTheAggie
This is just fantastic. I love the tree, I love the roof, I love it all! It's all so realistic, in a built from plastic covered in little nobby things slice of life the building would fall over otherwise sort of way. :)

I'd say you awe-struck me, but then I'd have to press charges.

--Anthony

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 7:15 pm
by MaxiVisVires
Seeing this just gave me a craving for some Mochi balls. :)

Great MOC!

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 9:34 pm
by Dunechaser
Duuuuuuuuuude!!! :D

From the water bowl, wooden mallet, cherry tree and roof outside to the stove, hina ningyo and "vistor" inside, I can't imagine a more perfect way to recreate this scene. Wow, very nice indeed. And the roof! (I know I already mentioned the roof.) I've never seen roof tiles that look so good in LEGO.

Are you sure you never lived in Japan? :wink:

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 9:42 pm
by Jacob C.
Beautiful Moc.
I love the cherry blossom tree!
Nicely detailed.
Wonder what the hidden visitor is up to?

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 10:01 pm
by Azaghal
The Urban Commando got slightly lost . . . :lol:

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 11:41 pm
by Sir Terrance
Great creation! I just love the way you built the roof, and details are amazing. Great work!

~Chris Perron

Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 12:40 am
by Tristram
I'm so impressed! I lived in Japan for a time, stationed in Iwakuni, and I find this MOC to be both LEGO accurate and fun. Very nice cherry blossom tree, I can almost smell the blossoms! The roof is splendid. In fact, everything just looks right.

I really love this.

Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 1:37 am
by Moroder
That's not much left to say abouy this MOC... so I'll repeat the others, it's beautiful! Incredibly realistic and simple. The whole scene have a great level of detail, but keeping it 'light'. I would just take one or two minifigs away, but that's just me. Beautiful creation, Sir Nelson!

Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 3:06 am
by ottoatm
The details are once again present in this MOC (as others stated). Nice action going on indside, but the things I like the most are the cherry blossoms and the roof... I wonder how you know this about Japanese culture?

As usual, a pleasure to view your stuff!

Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 7:27 am
by Sir Nelson
ottoatm wrote:I wonder how you know this about Japanese culture?
Being from Hawaii, you can't help but to learn a lot about other cultures.... and that's a good thing! :D

This was really a fun build for me! Dunechaser knows that I have been wanting to make a mochi-pounding vignette for some time now, but when I tried it on an 8x8 base, I felt it just did not capture the feel of the event. So, it then became 8x16, but I felt it was still missing something - a background. I doubled the base (which is not really a familiar scale for me, other than my 2 CCC3 'room' entries) and then things started to really come together. I am very pleased with the result, especially the roof. You can thank my wife for the idea of the cherry-blossom tree... that made me change the direction of the MOC from a simple mochi-making one to a Girl's Day festival.

As for Urban Commando.... well, after all he is a contemporary ninja! Look for him in some of my upcoming MOCs!

Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 3:16 am
by Stone Goblin
Very cool MOC. :)
Love the unique roof design and cherry blossom tree. A lot of nice little details, like the concrete step and the hanging airconditioner on the side of the house, if that is what it is. :roll:
One question. Are cherry blossom trees suppose to be black? Or are you using the black to help bring out the pink and white?
Excellent work once again Sir Nelson. :D

Urban Commando, sure resembles my Assassin Rogue sig fig. Maybe they're related. I mean both of are characters like to hide. :wink:

Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 6:14 am
by JPinoy
Wow. Awesome set up! I've been to a Hina-Matsuri as well as a Haru-Matsuri when I had a Japanese language class back in highschool.

Great MOC!