Beside Dragon God’s Pond, Ohisama’s hina display stood quietly spread out.
Seven crimson -lacquered tiers , the Emperor and Empress dolls leaning against a golden screen. Beside a vase decorated with peach branches, Ohisama frowned as she swept away a single fallen petal with a small bamboo broom.
“Kopo, don’t touch.”
“I’m not touching it! I just got close.”
As Kopo stepped back, one of the three court ladies tilted slightly. Ohisama’s sigh dissolved into the spring air.
“…These dolls only get to come outside once a year. I have to watch over them properly.”
Kopo said nothing and sat down on a rock a little way off. The dolls’ small faces glowed quietly in the light of dusk .
As the sun set, something strange began to happen in the sky beyond the pond. The full moon was slowly, steadily swallowed into shadow from one edge.
“…The moon’s turning red.”
At the sound of Kopo’s voice looking up, Ohisama raised her eyes too. The dark red moon reflected in the pond, tinting the golden screen of the hina display a faint red.
Sonchō came to the water’s edge, a sakura rice cake in one hand.
“That’s the color of the Dragon God’s robes , that moon tonight. As the story goes, only on nights when the moon turns red do the hina dolls dance on the water.”
Ohisama looked at the display. In the red light of the moon, it seemed for a moment that the Empress doll’s golden hairpin trembled faintly.
“…That’s impossible.”
“Is it? For children who only get to go outside once a year, wanting to dance on a special night — isn’t that only natural? Feh-feh.”
Kopo quietly sat back down beside Ohisama. The two of them watched the red moon and the hina display in silence.
Margin note: The next morning, a single pair of small frog footprints stood in front of the hina display. Ohisama said nothing, but put off tidying up a little longer than usual.
【Today’s Drop】
- Hinamatsuri (Doll’s Festival / Peach Festival, March 3): A traditional event praying for the healthy growth and happiness of girls, celebrated with seven-tiered hina dolls, peach blossoms, diamond-shaped rice cakes, and colorful rice crackers.
- Total Lunar Eclipse (March 3, 2026): A night when a total lunar eclipse is visible across Japan. The moon passes completely into Earth’s shadow, turning a deep copper -red — the astronomical phenomenon known as a “blood moon.”
This is an English translation of “赤い月と雛の宵”, part of Tales of Amencho Town (蛙鳴町奇譚).