Sometime during the end of the Edo period, several gardeners in Edo (today’s Tokyo) had the idea to make dolls (ningyo in Japanese) dressed with “costumes” made of living chrysanthemum flowers (kiku in Japanese), hence called Kiku ningyo.

Their idea became a tradition preserved until today, and if you visit Japan in November, you can find expositions of live-sized dolls made of living chrysanthemums, like the ones photographed here at the Yushima Tenjin shrine in Ueno, Tokyo.

Kiku ningyo, Yushima Tenjin Shrine, Ueno, Tokyo

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Yesterday’s Japan Photo: Old Japanese stories, Kume-no-Heinai-do