Traditional Crafts

Yanagawa Mari Decorated Cotton BallsFolk Crafts

Yanagawa has a longstanding tradition of creating decorated cotton balls, known as "mari." These hanging decorations continue to form an essential part of the Doll Festival (a festival where people pray for the healthy development of girls) in this area. Yanagawa mari are created by using cotton and woolen yarn to form the shape on a rounded woodblock and then wrapping yarn around this in subtle ratios according to each design. In the past, cotton thread colored with plant dye was mainly used to produce these balls, but today lily-yarn and other kinds of thread are also used to create Yanagawa mari with beautiful and colorful designs.