imperial couple dolls; emperor and empress dolls
Refers specifically to the pair of dolls representing the emperor and empress displayed on the top tier of the Hina-matsuri doll set.
For the Doll Festival, we display the imperial couple dolls on the top tier.
ひな祭り is the Doll Festival itself, whereas 内裏雛 are the central dolls used in the celebration.
Standard kanji spelling for the imperial couple dolls.
Mixed kanji-kana spelling, sometimes used for readability.
内裏 (だいり) originally referred to the imperial palace, and 雛 (ひな) means doll. The term thus denotes dolls representing the imperial couple.