Daruma
August 31, 2008 § 5 Comments
Daruma dolls (達磨), also known as dharma dolls, are hollow and round Japanese wish dolls with no arms or legs, modelled after Bodhidharma, the founder and first patriarch of Zen. Typical colors are red (most common), yellow, green, and white. The doll has a face with a moustache and beard, but its eyes only contain the color white.
Using black ink, one fills in a single circular eye while thinking of a wish. Should the wish later come true, the second eye is filled in. It is traditional to fill in the right eye first; the left eye is left blank until the wish is fulfilled.
This is my faithful Daruma who granted me a great wish many years ago. It was given to me as a gift by my Tokyo chum Nobu and as you can see from both his eyes the wish came true.
=)
Also about the Daruma…it’s considered unlucky to keep in over a year (whether or not your wish came true).
Japanese people bring their Daruma (and other New Year charms) to a local temple at New Years to have them burned…and they buy new ones for the next year.
“Tokyo Five”
http://www3.ocn.ne.jp/~tokyo5
U-oh. Well, I don’t have a local temple and would be really loathed to burn him as he was a gift. I guess I’ll just have to take the bad luck!
Thanks for the info =)
P.S. hope life is good in Tokyo, I was there a few years ago and loved it. Crazy place, wonderful people.
Actually, I didn’t think you’d want to burn your Daruma…since it’s a gift. Just thought you might be interested.
And life is good in Tokyo. It’s the best city on Earth, in my opinion.
Do you have pictures and / or a post on your blog about you trip to Japan?
Afraid not, the camera I took was 35mm film and I’ve never scanned them. I’ve been fascinated by Japanese culture (especially street / youth culture) since my early twenties and visiting Tokyo was a dream come true.