On the second or third of February ends the period of greater cold, and with it nominally the winter season. In the evening peas are parched and thrown about in every room with the cry, “Fortune within,” and then they are flung outdoors with the shout, “Demons without.” This is to purify the house for the new spring season; and the members of the family eat each a number of these peas, which is one in excess of the years of their age. The eleventh is one of the three great national holidays; it is the anniversary of the coronation of Emperor Jimmu, the founder of the Japanese Imperial line, the other two being the New Year’s Day and the Emperor’s Birthday. There are six ordinary national holidays, namely, the anniversary of the death of Emperor Komei, the father of the present Emperor (January 30th), the Feast of the Vernal Equinox (March 21st or 22nd), when offerings are made to the Imperial ancestors on the equinoctial day, the anniversary of the death of Emperor Jimmu (April 3rd), the Feast of the Autumnal Equinox (September 23rd or 24th), the Feast of the New Season’s rice which is offered at the great Shrine of Ise (October 17th), and the Feast of the New Rice which is offered to the other deities and eaten for the first time in the Imperial Palace (November 23rd). On the third of March falls the Feast of Dolls. Towards the end of February, the dolls are brought out and tiers of shelves put up, usually against a wall of the parlour. On the highest shelf sit the Emperor and Empress, with a screen at the back and overhead a roof adorned with curtains. Below them sit the Court ladies, while lower still are the five Court musicians and two armed guards. These are the regulation dolls, and to them may be added any others. Then food is set before the Emperor and Empress on two miniature trays; and all sorts of lilliputian household goods, such as chests of drawers, toilet stands, and kitchen utensils, are ranged on the lower tiers. Also white _sake_, which is _sake_ barm dissolved in _mirin_, is offered to the dolls and drunk as well by the family. These dolls are displayed in every family where there is a daughter, and the feast is looked forward to by its female members, who invite their girl-friends to come and see the array of dolls. They are put away on the sixth or seventh. [Illustration: THE FEAST OF DOLLS.]