Toru Takemitsu

- Fire Festival

Cover of the 1958 Japanese program for Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress.

Kendra Smith appropriated a bit of the words from the Fire Festival (himatsuri) scene for her beautiful Wheel of the Law:

"set fire to mens lives with the bonfire flames, insects throw their lives into the bonfire flames, under it you'll see this world is darkness and this floating world's a dream so burn in mad abandon"

@ask-the-massacre-soldier

March 3rd is Hinamatsuri in Japan, aka Girl’s Day or Doll’s Day.

According to wikipedia:

The top tier holds two dolls, known as imperial dolls (内裏雛 (だいりびな) dairi-bina?). The words dairi means "imperial palace". These are the Emperor (男雛 O-bina?) holding a ritual baton (笏 shaku?) and Empress (女雛 Me-bina?) holding a fan, often mistakenly called Odairi-sama (御内裏様?) and Ohina-sama (御雛様?) respectively.[6]

More:

   Hinamatsuri traces its origins to a Heian period custom called hina-nagashi (雛流し?, lit. "doll floating"), in which straw hina dolls are set afloat on a boat and sent down a river to the sea, supposedly taking troubles or bad spirits with them. The Shimogamo Shrine (part of the Kamo Shrine complex in Kyoto) celebrates the Nagashi-bina by floating these dolls between the Takano and Kamo Rivers to pray for the safety of children. People have stopped doing this now because of fishermen catching the dolls in their nets. They now send them out to sea, and when the spectators are gone they take the dolls out of the water and bring them back to the temple and burn them.

   The customary drink for the festival is shirozake, a sake made from fermented rice. A colored hina-arare, bite-sized crackers flavored with sugar or soy sauce depending on the region, and hishimochi, a diamond-shaped colored rice cake, are served.[4]Chirashizushi (sushi rice flavored with sugar, vinegar, topped with raw fish and a variety of ingredients) is often eaten. A salt-based soup called ushiojiru containing clams still in the shell is also served. Clam shells in food are deemed the symbol of a united and peaceful couple, because a pair of clam shells fits perfectly, and no pair but the original pair can do so.

   Families generally start to display the dolls in February and take them down immediately after the festival. Superstition says that leaving the dolls past March 4 will result in a late marriage for the daughter.[5]