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.
=)
