Before hina dolls stood on tiered platforms in family alcoves, they floated. In Mochigase, a former post town on the Sendai River south of Tottori city, the original form survives: on the third day of the third lunar month, early-to-mid April by the modern calendar, children set paper dolls, a husband and wife pair, onto round straw trays with a sprig of peach blossom and a lozenge of rice cake, and let the river take them. The doll absorbs the child's misfortunes; the water carries them away. It is Girls' Day from before Girls' Day became decoration. Children in kimono crouch at the bank, open their hands, and watch the little rafts spin slowly out of sight; nobody talks much until they are gone. The riverbank in April is lined with peach and rapeseed blossom, and the town behind it, white walls, wooden lattices, one long street beside the water, still looks like somewhere a doll might reasonably begin a journey. A small museum keeps the tradition alive the rest of the year. The prefecture lists the rite as an intangible cultural property, which is the official way of saying what the river has always known: a prayer is something you let go of.