It contains a gogatsu ningyo, a samurai warrior doll, complete with an elaborately decorated tachi (sword), yumi (bow and arrow) and two folding lacquered screens, also with decorative corners.
here was also a wooden plaque with Japanese characters and a length of green cotton felt with a flowered silk brocade border.
Putting the doll together was a little complicated as he came in many pieces. The head is covered by an ornamented helmet and there are shoulder plates, shin guards, upper leg plates and fur boots. He sits on a lacquered pedestal.
In Japan, gogatsu ningyo were used every May 5 at the Tango no Sekku festival, to wish for the healthy growth of boys. The armour, helmet, sword and bow and arrows were once worn by brave warriors and symbolise strength and good health. The festival has since been renamed Kodomo no Hi (Children's Day) and now includes both boys and girls.
This tradition originated in a ritual using sweet calamus (a plant used both medicinally and to make fragrances), held at the Japanese Imperial Court more than 1200 years ago to ward off evil spirits. It was believed that sweet calamus had strong power because it was among the first plants to sprout in spring.
Later in the feudal era, this ritual evolved into a ceremony to pray for good fortune for boys and success in wars, and then gradually spread among the common people as a festival for children.
Families now celebrate Children's Day by flying carp-shaped streamers called koinobori. In Japan, carp are known to be strong fish that can leap up waterfalls. The koinobori symbolise parents' wishes for their children to be as strong as carp. \
The museum also received two windsocks as part of the donation. They are each three metres long and painted in shades of blue and pink.
Koinobori are commonly flown above the roofs of houses where children live, along with a big black-coloured koinoborisymbolising the father, a slightly smaller one, in red or pink, for the mother, and additional smaller koinobori of different colours for each child in decreasing order by age.
■Kathy Greensides is a collection assistant at the Whanganui Regional Museum.