Daruma San in Japan, Japanese Art and Culture

Welcome !

2009-12-31T13:33:00.000-08:00

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Welcome to the Daruma Museum
and the darumapedia !

Here you find information about Japanese culture,
with Daruma san and with Haiku as your guide.

The alphabetical index is below.
Use your browser to find a keyword.

.. .. .. The latest articles are here !
wrong spelling: dalma, daluma

... ... ... ... ... ... There are various galleries:

Main Daruma Museum (this blog) 　達磨ギャラリー
http://darumasan.blogspot.com/

Papermachee Dolls and Clay Dolls 張子と土人形
http://darumadollmuseum.blogspot.com/

Daruma Photo Gallery だるま写真館
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gabigreve2000/sets/

Daruma Pilgrims ... だるまと日本の巡礼
More about : Places and People ...
http://darumapilgrim.blogspot.com/

O-Fudo-Sama, Fudo Myo-O ... お不動さま、不動明王
More about : Japanese Deities
http://fudosama.blogspot.com/

Dragon Art of Asia - A Special Art Gallery

Ceremonies and Festivals of Japan

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My Haiku Gallery

View all my Activities .. .. Including Haiku

For Discussion and your comments: だるまフォーラム
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Darumasan-Japan/

Enjoy your stay at the Daruma Museum Galleries!
And come visit the REAL Daruma museum here:

本物のだるま資料館も見にきて、岡山県です：
。。。　GokuRakuAn 極楽庵　。。。

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Dr. Gabi Greve, Daruma Museum, darumapedia
Okayama prefecture, Japan

. . . . Please sign my GUESTBOOK …

Notebook and Waitinglist, Livedoor BLOG ..... .
WKD World Kigo Database by Gabi Greve

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SEARCH all my articles

Daruman だるまん
Darumanga だるまんが

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Contents A - C

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Contents D - F

2009-12-26T22:50:00.000-08:00

Contents G - J

2009-12-26T22:44:00.000-08:00

Contents K

2009-12-26T22:36:00.000-08:00

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Kabegami 壁紙 Wallpaper for your PC

Kabekake... 壁掛けだるま ... Daruma hanging on the wall

Kabocha Daruma as Pumpkinかぼちゃ達磨, かぼちゃだるま

Kaeru　蛙　かえる ...　The FROG

Kagami 鏡　＜＞　Mirrors and Buddhist Rituals
..... Darumasan-Japan/message/139
..... Darumasan-Japan/message/161

Kagamibuta　鏡蓋　＜＞ A kind of > Netsuke with Daruma

Kagome Food for Exam Students カゴメ　

Kagura Dance <>　神楽

Kai-awase 貝合わせ
shell game with hamaguri clams

Kaisen Daruma ... 海鮮だるま ... Fish Restaurants

Kakebotoke　掛仏　＜＞ Votive Plaque to hang on a Wall

Kakejiku 掛け軸　＜＞　Scrolls and Paintings (see also Zenga)
Main Entry for Scrolls
More Text
..... Darumasan-Japan/message/115
..... Scroll by Gozan
..... Shikishi by Inagaki sensei 稲垣伯堂
..... Daruma with a bee by 馬堀喜孝

Kama, Kiln Daruma gama　だるま窯備前焼・陶貴奄　Bizen Pottery

Kamakurabori 鎌倉彫り　＜＞　Kamakurabori - Daruma and Laquerware
.....Darumasan-Japan/message/65

Kamibukuro 紙袋　＜＞ Paper Bags (#13)

Kaminari Chan ... Little Thunder and Little Daruma雷ちゃん、かみなりちゃん

Kanamono, Metal Figures 　金物
..... From Silver 銀だるま

Kanban　看板　＜＞ Shop Sign

Kanda Myoojin 神田明神と銭型　＜＞　and Zenigata Items

Kanemochi 金持ち（餅）だるま　Rich Man Daruma (Rice Dumplings)

Kanji Character looking like Daruma 　漢字のだるま絵

Kankiten (Ganesh)

Kannon Daruma, Daruma Kannon だるま観音

KANSHIN ... 関心Japanese List with Daruma Keywords。「だるま」でつながるキーワード

Kanzan and Jittoku 寒山と拾得　＜＞ Two Zen Friends (Han Shan and Shi-De)

Kanzashi かんざし / 簪 hairpin

Kappa 河童　＜＞　The Water Goblin

Karee, Daruma Curry だるまカレー with a snowman Daruma from rice

Karimaruya Design Daruma かりまる屋

Kasa ... 笠 Daruma with a straw hat. suegasa 菅笠 sedge hat

Kashigata 菓子型　＜＞　Cake Molds from wood
..... Kashigata 菓子型　Cake mold from iron
..... Kashi bin 菓子ビン <> Glass for cookies

Kashiwa Daruma / 柏だるま

Kasugabe Dolls / 春日部張子

Kasuri - Ikat-Weaving with Daruma Patterns　絣(かすり)とだるまさんの模様. 絣だるま

Katana (1) - Daruma and the Japanese Sword
Katana (2) - Tsuba, Menuki, Daruma and the Sword　刀、鍔、目抜きとだるま
Menuki 目抜き　＜＞　Sword Decoration Menuki Part II
..... Tatara and Fuigo, making metal for the sword 高殿鑪,鞴

Katoo (gatoo) Pottery Lamp 瓦燈

Katsu!! ― Koan and Daruma　　喝と達磨さん

Katsugen undo 活元運動　＜＞　Healthy Asian Exercises

Katsuobushi kezuriki かつおぶし削り器 cutter for bonito flakes

Kawagoe Daruma ... 川越だるま　 Dolls and Daruma Market

Kawanabe Kyosai (Kawanabe Gyoosai, Kyoosai) 河鍋暁斎. Painter, (1831-1889)

Kawasaki Daishi (川崎大師) A famous temple in Kawasaki

Kawasaki Kyosen 川崎巨泉（1877-1942） ... 5000 Sketches of Japanese Folk Art

Kawa zaiku 皮細工　 Leather Goods : Notebook cover ノートカバー（達磨カービング） notebook cover / Holder for business cards 名刺入れ meishi ire

Kazunoko 塩数の子　厳選だるま Salted Herring Roe selected by DARUMA

Kazusa Daruma 下総だるまPapermachee Dolls (see also: Kashiwa Daruma)

Kenzon Daruma ... 謙三だるま, 謙三達磨

Keshigomu ... 消しゴム Eraser

Kewpie Daruma Dolls ... だるまキューピー Daruma Kyuupii

Keyholder, キーホルダー ..... see als STRAP

Kigo　季語　。。。 Season words used in Japanese Haiku.
Another important part of the Darumapedia !

kigurumi きぐるみ【着包み】 Daruma doll costumes to wear

Kimono 着物　＜＞　Old Dresses with Daruma Patterns
..... Kimono, Yukata, Nagajuban 着物、浴衣、長じゅばん
..... ..... Photo Gallery

Kin 18金製 18 Carat Gold Daruma

Kintaroo, the Golden Boy 金太郎

Kiri-e, cut-out pictures 切絵

Kitagawa Utamaro .. 喜多川歌麿（１７５３～１８０６年）

Kitsune Daruma, Fox Daruma　狐だるま　狐達磨 From Niigata. See also : Inari, the Fox Deity

Kiyomizu Small Clay Dolls 清水豆人形（京都府）

Kobijutsu 古美術　＜＞　Antiques with Daruma

Kobori Enshuu Garden Designer, 小堀遠州

Kodaruma BLOG 小達磨 Collection of Kodaruma San

Koohii 黒だるまコーヒー Black Daruma Coffee

Koohii Kappu 呉須だるまコーヒー碗皿 Coffee Cup with gosu blue glazing

Koinobori 鯉幟　＜＞ Carp Streamers

Kokeshi こけし　＜＞　Wooden Dolls
Kokeshi (1) こけし ..... Kokeshi (2) こけし ..... Kokeshi (3) こけし..... Kokeshi (4) Collection
..... Kokeshi Nesting Dolls (Matrioshka, Matryoshka)

Kome no kamibukuro ... 米の紙袋 Paperbag for rice

Konoe Nobutada 近衛信尹 Painter. 1565 - 1614

Konosu Papermachee Dolls 鴻巣達磨 Saitama prefecture

Konpira san, Kompira san ... 金毘羅大権現 ... Kotohira Shrine 琴平宮

Koo　お香　＜＞ Incense and Daruma ... Main Entry
Koogoo - Daruma as an Incense Container　　香合とだるま
Kooro - Daruma as an Incense Burner　　　　香炉とだるま
. . . . . see also INCENSE

Koraku-En and Daruma - An Autumn Walk 　後楽園とだるまさん

Korea and Daruma 韓国とだるま Kankoku to Daruma

Koshigaya Daruma 越谷張子 Hariko Dolls

Koshu Daruma ... (Kooshuu Daruma) 甲州だるま ... Shingen Daruma 信玄だるま (Takeda Shingen), Yamanashi Daruma

Kootsuu anzen (kotsu anzen) ... traffic safety, road safety 交通安全だるま

Kotodama and Onisaburo Deguchi .. 言霊 . 出口鬼三郎

Koya-San and Kobo Daishi 高野山と弘法大師
..... Koyasan in Wakayama
.....Koya-san A Haiku Walk and Light Offerings to the Buddhas

Koozen-Ji 興禅寺 Daruma Temple Kozen-Ji White Daruma Statue

Kuchi-e くちえ【口絵】 frontispice and the Great Ansei Earthquake . Ansei (安政)

Kukkii だるまクッキーDaruma cookies Daruma sweets だるまやスイーツ

Kuma 熊 .. the BEAR.. with various items. Bear Bell, kumasuzu 熊鈴だるま

Kumano and Nachi ― Hunting for Stone Daruma　熊野と那智のだるま. Road to Kumano (Kumano Kodo 熊野古道)

Kuniyoshi, Utagawa Kuniyoshi ...歌川国芳 ... (1797 - April 14, 1861). Woodblock print

Kurama Stone, Kurama Ishi 鞍馬石

Kurashiki and Daruma 　　　倉敷とだるま

Kuroji 黒字の炭だるま .. Black Daruma sumi Daruma 炭だるま charcoal Daruma

Kurumi, carved walnuts 胡桃くるみ

Kusuri, kusuribukuro　薬袋 Medicine Bags

Kushi 櫛　(くし) Comb

Kushikatsu Daruma ... 串カツ『だるま』 Restaurant in Osaka. Kushiyaki Food

Kutani-yaki 九谷焼　＜＞　Kutani Pottery, Kutaniyaki

Kuya Shonin Kuuya Shoonin, Saint Kuya 空也上人

Kyoiku 教育　＜＞　Education with Daruma, Educational Material

Kyoto Clay Dolls

Kyuusu 急須 Kyusu Teapot だるま急須 Daruma Kyusu ダルマ急須

Contents L - N

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Contents O - R

2009-12-26T22:26:00.000-08:00

Contents S

2009-12-26T22:18:00.000-08:00

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Sable Cakes from Kawasaki 川崎大師名物大人気元祖ダルマサブレー

Sagawa Art Museum

Sagemono ... 提げ物
"Things to hang from the belt"

Saigyo Hooshi (西行法師) and the Cherry Blossoms

Saijiki for Buddhist Events 俳句仏教歳時記

Sai no Kawara 賽の河原　＜＞ The Limbo World for Dead Children

Sakamoto Ryoma Daruma Guinomi 坂本竜馬ダルマぐい呑み sake cup from Tosa

Sake, Ricewine and Daruma 酒
..... Sakazuki　杯 small cups / 達磨タンブラー . Tumbler Daruma

Sakurai Hanako and her Daruma Bords

Salt and Pepper Shaker Shio Koshoo Ire . 塩コショウ入れ. 塩胡椒入れ

Sanada Yukimura 真田幸村 and Shogun Daruma 武将達磨

Sankaku 三角だるま　三角ダルマ　＜＞　Triangular Daruma Dolls
..... Mini Gallery

Sankuro, Dondo Yaki and Spring Fire Ceremonies 三九郎とだるま　(Sankuroo)

Sanpo-Ji Temple 三寳寺（さんぽうじ三宝寺） with Daruma mikuji

Santa Claus and Daruma San －Merry Christmas! 　サンタさんとダルマさん ... “Sankt Niklaus”

Santooka 種田山頭火　＜＞　A Wandering Haiku Master, Taneda Santoka
..... Shinjin Datsuraku and the Begging Bowl

Sanukibori ― Carving from Sanuki Area in Shikoku　　讃岐彫り　四国の金毘羅さん

Sara - Plates お皿にだるま

Saru - Monkey 猿とだるま

Satsuma-Yaki　薩摩焼＜＞ Satsuma Ware

SCROLLS with Daruma 掛け軸　と達磨

Seals　シール

Sekiri Daruma carrying one sandal　靴を持っている達磨さん：隻履達磨

Senbei だるませんべい Rice Crackers

Sencha 煎茶　＜＞　Tea with Daruma see > CHA

Sengai Gibon せんがい仙厓義梵　＜＞　Sengai and Zen and a Frog

Sengaku-ji Temple and the 48 Ronin Story

Senkootate - Daruma as an Incense Stick Holder　線香立てとだるま

Senkyo Daruma 選挙だるま Victory Daruma to win the election 2009 衆院総選挙

Senryobako ... 千両箱 Money boxes with Kokeshi dolls

Sensu 扇子　＜＞　Hand Fans, Uchiwa 団扇　 oogi。from Marugame and others

Setsubun Festival .. Throwing Beans for Good Luck　節分

Shahai 写俳 Photo, Haiku and Daruma Dolls

Shakuhachi 　尺八　＜＞　Bamboo Flute

Shamisen ... 三味線 Shamisen, musical instrument

Shamoji しゃもじ　＜＞　Rice Spoon, Ladle

Shanghai Fine Jewellery and Art Fair ... SFJAF

Shichifuku-jin 七福神　＜＞　Seven Gods of Good Luck

Shikishi <> 色紙 paper art boards .. for paintings or poems

Shikoku Daruma ... 四国のだるま張子　Daruma Dolls from Shikoku

Shikoku Henro 四国遍路　＜＞　Shikoku Pilgrimage to 88 Temples　see also > HENRO

Shimenawa 注連縄

Shino-Yaki 志野焼　＜＞　Shino-Pottery

Shinsengumi 新選組だるま Papermachee Doll for the Samurai Group "Shinsengumi"

Shirakawa Daruma Papermachee Dolls 白川だるま張子

Shiroi Hotoke 白仏　＜＞　White Buddha Daruma

Shishigatani kabocha 鹿ヶ谷かぼちゃ pumpkin from Shishigatani, Kyoto Pumpkin Daruma

Shishi-odoshiししおどし　＜＞　Deer Scarer　in the garden

　Shishuu 刺繍　＜＞ Stiching Paintings, Embroidery, Nishijin

Shita 舌　 Daruma sticking out his tounge !

Shizen 自然　＜＞　Photoalbum with natural Daruma forms
..... Shizen . Natural Daruma Shapes .. Stalagmites, Ikura-Cave 井倉洞

Shochu Schnaps dispenser <> 焼酎サーバー from Arita pottery

Shoogatsu ...　正月 New Year Decorations

Shogun Daruma (Shoogun Daruma) 武将達磨 Sanada Yukimura 真田幸村, Naoe Kanetsugu 直江兼続, Toyotomi Hideyoshi 豊臣秀吉　in 2009 NHK Drama

Shoki (Shooki 　鍾馗　しょうき）The Demon Queller

Shoorin-Zan, Daruma-Ji Takasaki ... 高崎少林山 Shorinzan

Shooshuu 消臭たまご Air Freshener, Air Deodorant

Shotoku Taishi and Daruma (Shootoku Daishi) 聖徳太子とだるま

Shooyu ... 醤油差し Soy Sauce dispenser and Soy Sauce, Soyasosse

Shunga Daruma　春画だるま Erotic Pose

Shusse Daruma 出世だるま / 出世達磨 .. Career with Daruma

Shutsuzan Shaka: Why is Daruma covering his hands with his robe? 出山釈迦

Sekiri　セキリ　＜＞Sekiri Daruma carrying one sandal
..... Sekiri Daruma II

Snacks with Daruma スナック Food

Soba 蕎麦　そば　＜＞ Daruma Eating Buckwheat Noodles

Soccer World Cup ＜＞　サッカー　ワールドカップ

Sokkusu ソックス : Tabi socks 足袋 and toe socks 五本指ソックス

Sokrates meets Daruma

Sokushinbutsu 即身仏　＜＞　Miira,　Living Mummies, Buddhist Mummies in Japan, 日本のミイラ
Haguro san, Dewa Sanzan, Northern Japan
..... Haguro San 羽黒出羽三山

Somin Shorai (Somin Shoorai) 蘇民将来　だるま at Kita no Tenmangu 北の天満宮

Soroban, Abacus ．．そろばん　算盤　Abakus

相州だるま　Sooshuu Daruma / 相模だるま　 Sagami Daruma

Special Purpose Daruma, an online store オンラインのお店

Spoon <> Silver Spoon with Daruma Handle (07/08)

Stamps, rubber stamps

Star Shrines .. Hoshi Jinja, Myooken Bosatsu (Myoken Bosatsu)

Starbucks Daruma Goods スターバックス

Stove, Daruma Stove だるまストーブ

Strap <> ストラップ
..... Strap with WinebottleFrom Carlo Rossi Vinyard, 2006. オリジナル　ミニだるまストラップ

Street Signs, Dharma Street

Suijinsama 水神様　＜＞　The Gods of the Four Elements, the Water God
..... SUIJIN God of Water

Suika スイカ　＜＞　Daruma as a Watermelon

Suiseki ... 水石 ... Stone Appreciation .. だるま水石

Suiteki 水滴 water drippers

Sumi Daruma 炭だるま charcoal Daruma Black Daruma

Sumida Pottery <>Vase with Daruma

Sunafumi 砂踏み　＜＞　O-Sunafumi, Stepping on Sacred Sand
..... More about Sunafumi
..... Sunafumi <> Walking on Holy Sand (2)

Sunglasses papermachee doll from Taiwan

Suzuri 翡翠硯（すずり） Inkstone

Symbols in Asian Art

Contents T - Z

2009-12-26T22:16:00.000-08:00

Newsletter 2009

2009-12-25T17:35:00.000-08:00

Tokachi Daruma

2009-07-21T23:16:00.000-07:00

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Tokachi Daruma 十勝だるま

From Ikeda Town （池田町） in Hokkaido.

Made from black obsidian stone of the vulcano Tokachi in Hokkaido.
They are made since the Meiji period.

Photo from my friend Ishino.

Daruma made from stone are rather seldom in Japan.

Ishi 石　＜＞　Daruma from StonePetroglyphs, Rocks 岩など

Reference : Tokachi, Hokkaido

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Daruma Museum

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worldkigo

Election 2009

2009-07-16T22:20:00.000-07:00

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Elections 2009 選挙だるま senkyo Daruma
certain victory　必勝だるま hisshoo Daruma

8月30日の衆院総選挙
国会議員

選挙用のだるま

General elections in Japan will be held on 30 August 2009 for all seats of the House of Representatives, which designates a Prime Minister of Japan. In the election, it is widely expected that the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) will defeat the ruling coalition (Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and New Komeito Party), ending its 50 year near-uninterrupted control of government.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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Daruma Otoshi !
Otoshi, Daruma Otoshi 　だるま落とし　/ だるまおとし

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選挙だるま Senkyo Daruma for the Election 必勝ダルマ

other goods for the election 候補者用
http://www.senkyo-youhin.com/office-daruma.html

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http://senkyo-yohin.com/sonota.html

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http://item.rakuten.co.jp/marutomi-a/okmd15/

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sample with a name of a candidate
the part around the eyes is orange and then circled with gold foil.

Victory Daruma
http://www.daruma1.com/catalog_03.html

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Takasaki Daruma preparing for the Election !

ミニ当選だるま

【吉田だるま　2009年5月20日】
衆議院の解散総選挙が行われることは確かです。

http://www.takasaki-kankoukyoukai.or.jp/products/blog/2009/05/post-21.html

Kitty Daruma help win the election !

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/news/20090710-OYT1T00902.htm?from=y10
2009年7月10日 Yomiuri Shinbun

Made by two sisters in Takasaki.

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to rake in the votes ... with a rake / kumade
当選熊手「票あつめ(R)」

http://item.rakuten.co.jp/nacole/iyo-kumade1/

. . . CLICK here for Photos !

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Manju with the faces of Japanese politicians
Aso manjuu with chocolate 麻生まんじゅう
Koizumi manjuu 小泉まんじゅう
Ozawa manjuu おざわまんじゅう, 小沢饅頭
Shinchan manjuu 晋ちゃんまんじゅう

　Drinks for Winning
必勝だるま茶 Tea

赤いダルマに金色のキャップ　幸運の「当煎茶」です。
Tosencha .. a play on words with winning the election
with a red Daruma

Gookaku Daruma <> 合格だるま
Examination Passing Helper Daruma (Gokaku Daruma)

Daruma Museum

. . . CLICK here for Victory Daruma Photos !

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worldkigo

Yamashina Paintings

2009-07-16T19:24:00.000-07:00

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Yamashian Paintings
山科絵 Yamashina-e

YAMASHINA-E, OTSU-E　－　
Pictures from Yamashina and Otsu
山科絵　　大津絵

I first met Yamamoto san in October 2003 on a visit to the famous temple Daigo-Ji in Kyoto. He was sitting in a small stall, sourrounded by the most colorful and humorous pictures. Taking a good look, there was of course Daruma san among the featured subjects. On this picture below you can see his BENTEN, one of the seven deities of Good Luck, another frerquent topic of his pictures.

Yoshio Yamamoto, 63, makes it his life-work to revive Yamashina Paintings.
山本さんは山科絵を自分のライフ・ワークにしています。

What exactly are Yamashina Paintings?
During the Edo period, there were many travellers on the old Tokaido road, from Kyoto to Edo and back to Kyoto. Each of the 53 postal towns on the way had its own speciality, mostly some local food. Yamashina, but even more so the nearby town of Otsu, were famous for some kind of funny paintings of religious origin (Otsu-E). Yamashina is now a modern suburb of Kyoto.

Otsu Paintings (大津絵)

They have survived until today and we find these motives on postcards or ceramics of all kinds.
Japanese folk painting known as otsu-e, so named for the town of Otsu just to the east of Kyoto, along the Tokaido road, the principal route linking Edo and Kyoto. Shops hawking cheap souvenirs included open-air painting studios where block-printed folk subjects embellished with vivid ink washes were offered in unmounted hanging scroll format, or as simple sheets of paper, each with a single subject.

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In celebration of the Japanese New Year, the Mingeikan (Japan Folk Crafts Museum) has organized a special exhibition entitled Otsu-e: Edo Period Popular Paintings, showcasing this traditional Japanese genre of painting from the Edo Period (1615-1868).

The name otsu-e is derived from the place where these paintings were sold, in and around the post town of Otsu, which lay on the Tokaido Road running between Edo (present day Tokyo) and Kyoto. Stands were set along the road to sell these paintings as souvenirs to passing travelers. Created by anonymous artists, the paintings were sold in great numbers for little money.

Some of the first otsu-e were created during the Kanei Era (1624-44) following the early Edo persecution of Japanese Christians. The artwork provided an inexpensive source of Buddhist art that could be displayed in the homes of commoners who feared retribution from the authorities, and needed proof of their devotion to Japanese religious beliefs.

By the end of the Genroku Era (1688-1704), otsu-e had become so popular that their themes were expanded to include depictions of secular subjects, such as beautiful women, courtesans, heroes, animals and mythical goblins.

Among the auspicious otsu-e motifs on display at the exhibition are depictions of the Shichifukujin, or Seven Deities of Good Luck. Displaying images of these deities was believed to be talismanic, bringing longevity, wealth and business success to their owners. The practice of displaying Shichifukujin originated in the 15th century. The deities were drawn from an eclectic mix of Buddhist, Shinto and Taoist figures.

The deities are often portrayed riding in a boat together, but some otsu-e portray one or two deities, which are popular to display during the New Year.

One such painting, "Daikoku Shaving Fukurokuju," demonstrates the happy and humorous natures of these two members of the group of Seven Deities. Daikoku is the deity of prosperity, while Fukurokuju is the deity of longevity. Daikoku is almost naked, clothed only in a loincloth and wearing a red hood. Holding a razor in his right hand, he must climb a ladder in order to shave Fukurokuju's head, since it is so elongated. The painting illustrates the human qualities of deities, who seem less than godlike in such poses, showing that the immortals have as many foibles as us ordinary folk.

This painting also demonstrates the exceedingly simple artistic techniques used to depict the subjects of otsu-e. Usually drawn on plain brown paper, the paintings utilize a limited number of mineral pigments, typically including the colors blue, red, green, yellow and white. The first stage in creating the paintings was to make an outline in black, which was then filled in with colors in simple brushwork.

Each member of an artist's family pitched in to help, including parents and children. This process assured the quick completion of each work and enabled mass production of art. Many local craftsmen were involved in the production process, resulting in a pool of local themes in otsu-e art. So cheap that almost anyone could afford them, the art was often attached to doorways or glued on pillars and sliding doors in commoners' homes.

MORE
source : www.mingeikan.or.jp

There is also a special museum for Otsu paintings in the Town of Otsu.
http://www.lbm.go.jp/kenhaku/shoukai/06.html

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Concluding my remarks about Otsu-e:
They remind me a lot of HAIGA, I must say.

Maybe there is a link between them both after all?
Being painted by sort-of laypeople for common folk, not ment to be high art, but entertaining or used as presents from heart to heart.

Yamashina Paintings / My ALBUM

The BIG BROTHER of Otsu paintings is still very much alive, but Yamashina paintings have been almost lost in our modern times.
Mr. Yamamoto, who lives in Yamashina, is trying to revive them in his own humorous style. He has done so after a lot of personal research and is now selling his paintings in various temples, since about 1998.

Many topics of these paintings concerned the gods of good luck and other deities of Shintoism and Buddhism, the same as we met above in the Otsu Paintings. They are painted with black ink and some watercolors, the faces of the gods are usually taken from the living men and women of his neighbourhood.

During the Edo period, these cheap paintings of the deities were all a poor traveler could afford during his trip, so Yamamoto san keeps his prices down too. After buying some of his postcards, he gave me a few more and later even sent me a long letter in beautiful calligraphy with a Daruma and some water goblins (kappa, picture 07 in my album). He wrote if Yamashina paintings would be made known outside Japan, that would be a great honour to him.

Daruma san meets Sokrates, what a surprising combination of "East meets West". Yamamoto san was a schoolteacher before becoming a painter and a philosopher too.
だるまさんとソクラテス、なんと組むあわせ。西と東が仲良く話し合う。

Two water goblins (kappa) hoisting a kite of Daruma in the air. Kappa is another speciality of his Yamashina paintings, but to explain about kappa here would get us too far off the subject. Just think of him as some kind of human-frog.
河童とだるま。河童は山科絵の特徴のひとつです。

03 Daruma toppled
This shows a Kappa looking at a Daruma doll which has tumbled over. The surprized face of the little Kappa is quite fascinating.
河童と起き上がりのだるま

04 naughty Kappa
Four naughty Kappa boys trying to tumble a Daruma, who in turn tries to hold steadfast, keeping his balance. The individual versus society, as Yamamoto smiles wisely.
4 匹の河童はだるまを倒そうとし、だるまはビックともしない。

Two postcards, each using a Chinese character associated whith a virtue of Daruma in a funny distortion. NINtai 忍耐, or steadfastness and koDOKU 孤独, to be alone.
漢字にだるまを書きました。忍耐、孤独　のだるま

Yamamoto san also gave me a larger square picture with the seven gods of good luck in the treasure-boat, together with a Daruma in their midst. Since these seven are used in pictures for the New Year just as Daruma, he figured they might as well all sit in the same boat!
お正月に使う七福神にだるまも乗せ、なんと縁起のよい組み合わせ！

All my treasures of Yamashina paintings mounted on the wall of the Daruma Museum. On the top line his letter with a sample of his individualistic calligraphy. Here Daruma is sourrounded by dancing water goblins.
だるま資料館に収まった山科絵のコーナー。

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An abstract from a newpaper article about Yamamoto san in 2003.

京都新聞、2003年：
京都市山科区椥辻東浦町の画家、山本義雄さん(63)が江戸時代まで山科の旧東海道の街道沿いで売られていた「山科絵」を現代風に復活させた。同じルーツを持つ「大津絵」を参考に、京都の風景や山科ゆかりの人物などを描いており、「山科の名物にできれば」とはりきっている。
山科絵は、江戸時代の前－中期に生まれたとされ、半紙に神仏などの絵を描いて東海道を行き交う旅人に売られていた。東海道沿いでは、山科絵のほかに地元の名を付けた「大津絵」や「追分絵」「大谷絵」があったが、交通の手段が徒歩から鉄路などに変わり、今では大津絵だけが残っている。
古い文献などで山科絵の存在を知った山本さんが、「地元の歴史を見直したい」と考え、山科絵と同様に仏画から生まれたとされる大津絵の技法を学び、独自の要素を入れて４年前に山科絵を興した。

山本さんの山科絵は、墨と顔料で描く大津絵を参考に、金閣寺や醍醐寺などの京都の社寺、小野小町など山科ゆかりの人物などを、現代の絵具も使って色彩豊かに描いている。
「山科絵がどんなものだったかは残っていないので、大津より都に近い分、華やかさを取り入れるようにした」と山本さん。「街道沿いで売られた絵は、貧しい人たちの信仰の対象として生まれ、そこに庶民の遊び心が入ってきた経緯がある。復活させた山科絵も、人の心をなぐさめるような絵にして、昔のように山科の名物にしていきたい」としている。
Kyoto Shimbun 2003.04.15 News

References:
Choken-Ji and the Benten Picture:
http://homepage2.nifty.com/otsuri/english/eng_picture/photo/eng_chokenji.htm

The second from the bottom shows the small stall of Yamamoto san.
http://homepage2.nifty.com/otsuri/pictures/photo/chokenji/chok_sakura.htm

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Yamashina Paintings / Original at my Mini Daruma Gallery !

Daruma Museum

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worldkigo

Red and Smallpox Essay

2009-07-11T22:13:00.000-07:00

[ . BACK to DARUMA MUSEUM TOP . ]

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THE PATRIARCH WHO CAME FROM THE WEST

by Bernard Faure

Daruma, Smallpox and the color Red, the Double Life of a Patriarch

"La double vie du patriache", in Josef A. Kyburz et al., eds., Eloge des sources: Reflets du Japon ancien et moderne, Paris: Editions Philippe
Picquier, pp. 509-538.

Curtesy of Bernard Faure.

The footnotes are at the end.

Why did the patriarch Bodhidharma come from the West?
This is, of course, a famous kooan of Zen Buddhism, and Zen practitioners are supposed to find a non-intellectual answer reflecting the insight they have obtained through meditation. As to Bodhidharma, he has become a popular icon of Japanese culture and politics under the form of Daruma, the blind doll to the eyes of which one adds pupils to ensure the success of enterprises (for instance, in the modern period, on the evening of an electoral victory).

The Buddhist monk Bodhidharma (in Chinese Damo), an Indian missionary to China whom Christian missionaries long mistook for the apostle Thomas, was seen as an arhat and an avatar of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. As the founding patriach of the Chan/Zen school, he became eventually revered as an equal (and almost a double) of the Buddha himself. According to legend, Bodhidharma was the son of southern Indian king. Having obtained enlightenment, he left for China in order to convert the Chinese, and arrived in Canton at the beginning of the sixth century. His encounter with Emperor Liang Wudi (r. 502-49), a ruler who prided himself as a pious Buddhist, was a short one. Bodhidharma showed a certain lack of tactfulness when he declared that pious works were of no value. The emperor, not surprisingly, was annoyed by such bluntness and Bodhidharma deemed more prudent to leave right away for North China. Legend has it that he crossed the Yangze River on a reed, an element which made its way into iconography and to which I will return.

He settled on Song shan, where he is said to have practiced meditation during nine years facing a wall — another element to which I will return. Bodhidharma’s lofty teaching won him a few disciples, but also some powerful enemies, and we are told that he was eventually poisoned by two rivals. Soon after his death, however, a Chinese emissary returning from India claimed to have met him on the Pamir plateau. When Bodhidharma’s tomb was opened, it was found empty. It was therefore concluded that he was a sort of Daoist Immortal, and that his death was only a feigned death. This is, in a nutshell, the legend as it developed within the Chan/Zen tradition.

Such is, in its outline, the image of Bodhidharma as it developed in the Chan tradition toward the eighth century. The legend of the Indian patriarch, however, continued to develop outside of Buddhism, as shown by the attribution to this master of several Daoist works, as well as his promotion to the rank of founder of martial arts.[1] If the Bodhidharma worshiped as the first patriarch of Chan in China as little to do with the Indian monk of the same name, who was mentioned as admiring the pagoda of the Yongning Monastery in Luoyang at the beginning of the sixth century, the distance between the Japanese Daruma and his Chinese prototype seems even greater.

According to a later Japanese tradition, Bodhidharma did not return to India but traveled on to Japan. This version, propagated by the Tendai school, associates Bodhidharma with Shootoku Taishi, who came himself to be considered an avatar of the Tiantai master Nanyue Huisi (517-77). We are told that Shootoku Taishi one day met a starving beggar at the foot of Mt Kataoka (in Nara Prefecture) and exchanged a poem with him. The strange literate beggar was first identified as an immortal in the Nihon shoki. His further identification with Bodhidharma rested upon another widespread legend, according to which Huisi had once been Bodhidharma’s disciple. When the two first met on Mount Tiantai, Bodhidharma predicted that they would both meet again in a next life in Japan. This legend grew with the cult of Shootoku Taishi in the medieval period, and there is still a Daruma Temple at Kataoka, not far from Horyuuji — a monastery associated with Shootoku Taishi.

Let us leap ten centuries forward. Daruma became an extremely popular deity during the Edo period as a protector of children and bringer of good luck. In this folkloric version, the Indian patriarch of Chan/Zen has come a long way. He has been represented since that time as a legless, tumbling talisman doll, which, as the saying goes, “falls seven times and rises eight times." (nana korobi ya oki).[2] This popular representation of Daruma traces its origin back to the belief according to which Bodhidharma, after sitting in meditation for nine years in a cave on Song shan, came to lose his legs.

This representation lent itself to sexual symbolism: thus, until the Meiji period, phallic representations of Daruma in stone or papier-maché were sold.[3] The name "Daruma" was also a nickname given in the Edo period to prostitutes, perhaps because, like the doll, these specialists of tumble could raise the energy of their customers. Daruma is indeed often represented in comical fashion in the company of a prostitute — sometimes even as a transvestite or as a woman. He is also sometimes part of a more or less legitimate couple called “Mr. and Mrs. Daruma.” In some cases his partner is no other than the chubby Okame. These Daruma dolls protected children against illnesses such as smallpox and were supposed, among other things, to facilitate childbirth, bring good harvests, and more generally bring prosperity to their owners. There is also in Zen iconography a representation of the “erect Bodhidharma.” The sexual symbolism is played out in the ukiyoe, where Daruma appears as woman — a courtesan, or a transvestite Daruma and Okame. A representation in which one sees him in the company of two prostitutes — male and female — on a boat made from a reed-leaf associates the sexual motif with that of the crossing of the Yangzi River.

As Harmut Rotermund has pointed out, the image of Daruma standing up (okiagari Daruma) connotes metaphorically the fact of recovering from an illness, of overcoming it rapidly and lightly.[4] The Daruma dolls seem to have been initially good-luck objects (engimono) placed on the domestic altar (kamidana), before becoming mere toys. The okiagari Daruma also became a popular symbol of perseverance (okiagari) and new beginnings. Another association, at first glance surprising, is that which, in the Kantoo region, connects Daruma with silkworms, and transforms him into a talisman for sericiculture: the white cocoons have the form of a Daruma, or perhaps one should say that Daruma is cocoon-like.[5] One still sells today as engimono cocoons called mayu Daruma, on which Daruma features are painted; and this is perhaps related to the fact that, as we will see, both Daruma and the silkworm were symbols of gestation. However, this embryological symbolism, which connects Daruma with the silk-worm, refers also perhaps to the practice of the mushi-okuri or “insect-dispatching”: it may be a kind of funerary rituals for these creatures, which are sacrificed in large numbers during the spinning process, and of which one may have fear that they would become “resentful spirits.”

The images used in the symbolic fight against smallpox during the Edo period often show a Daruma doll and a puppy dog, symbol of good health. In one example, one kid stand on his hands on Daruma's head, another rides on the dog. They are accompanied by poems such as: "Near the sick child, struck by smallpox,/ playing a light game, a paper Daruma and the lucky charm dog." Or: "The fellow Daruma, with his gentle face, does not stay lying in bed." Behind the notion of game, one finds the magical invocation of health for children. The image of Daruma rising again also suggested a rapid recovery.

There were also children's illustated books against smallpox. In one of them, Daruma and his friends, the toys, organize a fbazaar in conjunction with the festival of the smallpox deities; in another, Daruma and his fellows, among which an owl, are scolded by the warrior Tametomo for letting free rein to the smallpox demons, thereby provoking ravages among the infantile population.

These stories, studied in detail by Hartmut Rotermund, show that, by the beginning of the Edo period, Daruma had become a protector against smallpox, and his role consisted in watching the smallpox demons so that they would not harm children.This suggests, however, that he was perceived as a kind of god of smallpox (hoosoogami). We recall that the same spiritual entities — here the hoosoogami — who were seen as the cause of epidemic diseases were eventually transformed into protectors against these same diseases. Like them, Daruma was enrolled in the fight against evil, but he retains some aspects from his past. For instance, while appearing to follow the orders of Tametomo, he is shown playing a double game and implicitly siding with the demons.

At any rate, a Daruma doll was usually offered with other auspicious toys to sick children. We must note in this context the importance of the colour red (which symbolizes, among other things, measles. The altar to the smallpox god was decorated with red paper strips (gohei), a daruma doll, and an owl; sometime also of a doll called shoojoo (orang-outan). Furthermore, the sick child had to wear a red hood.

What is the relation between the early Chan legend and the Edo doll? There are only a few clues, revealing symbolic associations which may never have come to the forefront -- or if they did, were eventually overshadowed by the “official” Zen interpretation. This interpretation prevailed even within Tendai, which transmitted the “one mind precepts of Bodhidharma” (Daruma isshinkai) and from which emerged the first Zen school, called, precisely, the “Daruma school” (Daruma-shuu). Because the “other side” of Bodhidharma -- the dark side -- was always submerged, the following reconstruction is perhaps more an exercise in heuristic imagination than an accurate description of historical reality. But at least, it raises a legitimate question, and may indicate the direction in which we look for an answer.

What is the relationship between the Bodhidharma legend, as it develops initially in Chan during the Tang period, and Daruma, the popular deity of the Edo period? In other words, how did the austere Chan patriarch ever become a tumbler doll? It is a complicated, and obscure story. To understand it, we have to unravel many strands that were woven together into one figure. Daruma will thus appear to us successively as:

- a malevolent spirit (goryoo)
- a crossroad deity (doosojin) associated with sexuality
- a placenta god (ena kojin)
- a “foreign” epidemic deity: god of Songshan and Shinra myoojin
- a smallpox deity (hoosoogami)
- a god of fortune (fukujin)

Other elements contributed to his posthumous success. Let us mention for instance:

- the symbolism of komori, incubation, reclusion, gestation, and its relation with a) easy childbirth on the one hand, silkworms and sericiculture on the other.

- the color symbolism (red) and spatial (south): fire, exorcism, yang

- the tumbling doll device (with its sexual connotations and its symbolism of rebirth or recovery)

This gradual entertwining of motifs was essentially realized during the medieval period. We will examine the main ones, following an approximatively chronological order.

A Malevolent Spirit
Even before encountering the Japanese materials, I have suspected that the choice, at first glance rather arbitrary, of the Indian monk Bodhidharma as the first patriarch of the Chan school may be the result of a scapegoat mechanism of the type described by René Girard in Violence and the Sacred. Whatever happened to the real Bodhidharma, the belief that he had been poisoned by rivals spread very early on, and it was in a way the logical conclusion of the series of hardships met by the foreign monk. The rumor about this tragic figure may be echoed centuries later in Edo Japan by the scholar Tominaga Nakamoto, who sees him as a pitiful figure, whose attempt to convert the Chinese was doomed from the start, and resulted in his murder: "Pitiful Bodhidharma!" Thus, it seems plausible that some of Bodhidharma’s contemporaries considered him to be a potentially dangerous dead, intent on revenge.

The Japanese tradition abounds in stories about charismatic monks who, because of the resentment they felt at the time of death for some injustice they suffered, return as malevolent spirits (onryoo or goryoo), or fall into the evil destinies -- in particular that of the tengu, demoniac beings represented with a beak or a long phallic nose. Although Bodhidharma is never described as a tengu as such, the association was suggested to me by a very beautiful netsuke seen at the British Museum. This netsuke represents a bird-like Tengu hatching from an egg, yet this egg-shaped figure strikingly resembles the popular representations of Daruma. However, the affinities between Bodhidharma and the tengu may not matter so much: the essential is that Bodhidharma’s death, inasmuch as it was not simply denied by its presumed immortality, gave him the aura of a vengeful spirit. Ww have see the importance take by these spirits, divinized under the name of goryoo, during the Heian period. We recall the most famous case, that of the statesman Sugawara no Michizane, whose spirit was placated after he was elevated to the rank of Heavenly Deity [Tenjin] and the Kitano Shrine was consecrated to him. Bodhidharma was to take a different path, more obscure and tortuous.

Daruma at the Crossroad
We have seen how the figure of Bodhidharma inserted itself into the legend of Shootoku Taishi through the intermediary of the Kataoka beggar. According to Hartmut Rotermund, Shootoku Taishi’s gift of a poem was perhaps aimed at revivifying the vital spirits (tama) of the starving man. Shootoku Taishi also allegedly gave his coat to the beggar. This act, which calls to mind St Martin’s gift, has given rise to all kinds of interpretations into which I cannot enter here. Rotermund notes that cloth offerings were made in places deemed dangerous, such as crossroads and passes, and he suggests that we may be dealing here with an act destined to placate the dead.[6]

According to Michael Como, this episod of Shootoku’s legend may have been intended to coopt preexisting rites of purification at the crossroad (chimata).[7] At the intersection of roads connecting Naniwa with the Asuka region, where the court was located at the time, Kataoka was an important ritual space. Scholars have often argued that the Shootoku Taishi cult itself may have intended to placate the vengeful spirit of the Regent, whose entire family had been decimated by his political opponents. However, Shootoku himself was by no means an innocent ruler, and it is plausible that he took preexisting purification rites at Kataoka, in order to placate the vengeful spirits of his defeated enemies — like Mononobe no Moriya. Kataoka was a site were ritual of spirit quelling were regularly undertaken by the Yamato court. These purification rites, center upon the fire god (a red deity), were designed to purify the land by sending evil spirits to the Ne no kuni. They involved the use of ritual dolls (hitogata), substitute bodies that were dressed in the ruler’s clothes before being sent off, like scapegoats, bearers of collective defilement. In this contex, Shootoku Taishi’s offering of his robe to the beggar on the roadside is no longer a sublime act of charity, it is a rite of purification and and of world renewal, connected to the New Year ritual. If Bodhidharma was perceived as a victim of untimely death, a potentially dangerous “foreign” spirit or god, it is not surprising that, after various symbolic drifts, it came to be identified with the Kataoka beggar, a threatening figure who had to be propitiated.

The fact that the Kataoka rituals were performed at a crossroad connects them to those of the crossroad deities (doosojin). As we have seen, these gods, also called sae no kami (“road-blocking deities”), were believed to protect villages and towns against calamities such as epidemics, insects, drought. Often represented by a man and a woman, engaged in implicit or explicit sexual behavior, they passed to ensure fecundity in women and sexual potency in men. We recall they were sometimes “personalized” as Ame no Uzume (Okame) and Sarutahiko. We find again Okame, in the Edo period, in the role of “Mrs. Daruma.” Thus, one can think that Bodhidharma, once identified with the Kataoka beggar — a crossroad deity — became in turn a doosojin, and in some contexts displaced Sarutahiko as partner of Uzume. It is no wonder that Daruma dolls became symbols of sexuality and fecundity, and in particular of easy childbirth.

The figure of the tumbler Daruma, or okiagari Daruma, also has a clear sexual meaning: that which falls and soon raises again is the penis. The sexual symbolism is quite obvious in the phalloid form of some Daruma dolls. With the prohibition in Meiji of Konsei Myoojin (a phallic-shaped deity popular in brothels), all kinds of symbolic substitutes were found, including mushrooms and okiagari-daruma. Small papier-maché phalloi sold at temple festivals were replaced, after the prohibition, by papier-maché representations of Ebisu and Daikoku. Some representations of Daruma are strongly reminiscent of the so-called yin-yang stones, symbolizing the male and female sexual organs. Likewise, the image of a dragon coiling around Daruma (ryËmaki Daruma) is reminiscent of the Tantric kundalini (Jap. Gundari), female energy represented as a snake raising and coiling around the central artery (a symbol also represented by the dragon Kurikara coiled around Fudoo’s sword). A representation of this ryuumaki Daruma motif — preserved in a chapel said to be that of the “Daruma of easy childbirth” (in the Sonoda Village, Rikuzen, Hirazawa, present Miyagi Prefecture) is also strongly reminiscent of the representations of the deity Ugajin — an aspect of the dragon-goddess Benzaiten.[8] Behind that chapel was a stele, at the back of which were engraved these suggestive words: “Daruma! Daruma! Ah, Daruma! Ah, Daruma, Daruma!”[9]

Daruma as Placenta god
The fecundity symbolism brings to consider the figure of Daruma in embryonic gestation. In the esoteric tradition of the Zen school, the famous mythical episod of Bodhidharma spending nine years immersed in “wall contemplation” in a cave on Song shan is interpreted as an embryological allegory.

Question: What about Bodhidharma’s nine years before the wall?

Answer: These are, in fact, the nine months spent in the womb.

Question: Tell me about Bodhidharma with the caul, about Bodhidharma prior to all distinctions, about Bodhidharms’s nine years before the wall.[10]

Answer: During the nine months spent in the maternal womb, the caul is put on. During the nine years of zazen Bodhidharma put on a skin cap -- to ward off the three poisons, to strenghen the roots of life.

A variant reads as follows:

Question: “What about “For nine years Bodhidharma faced the wall and said nothing”?

Answer: . Bodhidharma’s nine year before the wall are the nine months in the womb. This is the donning of the caul. The red hood that Bodhidharma wears as he sits before the wall is that caul. Bodhidharma within the womb has something to teach us.

The above text is found at the end of an embryological missanchoo, a secret interview notebook providing ready-made answers to Zen kooans.[11] Its source is a Rinzai commentary entitled Xiangyan’s Man Up a Tree,” based on the Wumen guan’s case: “The monk Xiangyan said: Suppose there were a man up a tree. He holds onto a tree branch with his teeth. His hands grasp no branch and his feet do not reach the trunk of the tree. Beneath the tree is someone who asks him: What is the meaning of Bodhidharma coming from the West? If the man does not respond at all, he will fail the questioner’s need. But if he does answer, he will fall to his death. In this situation how should one respond?”[12] The text glosses all the core-words in the above dialogue in embryological terms: the tree becomes the mother’s body, the man in the tree the embryo within the womb. To “hold onto the branch with his teeth” is to suck at “the root of milk” while still in the womb, etc.

In one of his works on Zen, Suzuki Daisetsu quotes this dialogue, and gives a series of traditional glosses, among which several clearly inspired from Tantric “oral traditions” -- et peu à son goût. One of them, in a text dated from the seventeenth century, is attributed to the Zen master Kohan Shuushin, and gives another example of embryological symbolism:

Main case: The Chan master Xiangyan Zhixian, addressing the community, said: ‘How about the man up a tree?’

Setchoo replied: ‘Up the tree, easy to say; below the tree, hard to say.’

The master asked: ‘The tree, what is it?’ Explanation: ‘The tree is the mother’s body.’ Commentary: A rootless tree on a rock.

What does “up a tree” mean? Explanation: “It is the place where the child dwells, in the mother’s womb l’enfant.”

What about the above passage? Explanation: “He hangs to the branch with his teeth” means that he sucks the roots of milk in the womb. “His hand cannot grasp the branch” means that his hands are placed against his chest.” “His feet cannot touch the trunk” means that his legs are folded when he faces the mother.

Commentary: During nine years facing the wall, his mouth is like that of a dumb. During these nine years facing the wall, not a breath of wind has passed, the five petals have opened, flowers have scattered, outside spring has come.

Explanation: The nine years spent facing the wall are the nine month within the womb, with the placenta. The fact that Bodhidharma facing the wall wears his red robe over his head symbolizes the placenta.[13]

Several kirigami of Sootoo Zen connect Bodhidharma’s reclusion in the Song shan cave to the myth of the solar goddess Amaterasu withdrawing into the heavenly cave when she felt threatened by her brother Susanoo. As one of these texts put it:

The withrawal of Amaterasu in the heavenly cave can be compared to the dwelling of the child in the womb. The maternal womb corresponds to the Great Shrine [of Ise], the child to the kami that is enshrined in it, and the mother’s vulva to the torii that marks the sacred limit.

As noted earlier, the medieval embryological theory of the five stages of gestation, together with specific beliefs concerning the (placenta (ena), gave birth to the cult of the placenta deity (ena koojin).[14] My hypothesis is that Daruma came to be perceived, in circumstances that remain obscure, as such a placenta deity — a god which was often described as “the warp and woof of heaven and earth.”[15] The demiurgic of this deity explains its identification with the stellar god of the “fundamental destiny” (honmyoo), that is, the Polar Star. This is for instance the case with Matarajin, which, as Suzuki Masataka has shown, was one of the main aspects of a “god of destiny” [shukushin”], both astral and embryological deity, governing life on both macrocosmic and microcosmic, astral and uterine planes.[16]

The prevalence of Zen orthodoxy probably explains why do not possess similarly explicit documents concerning Bodhidharma. We have to seek elsewhere, in less controlled sources like popular iconography or legend. For instance, a representation at the Darumadera representing him at the center of the twelve animals seems to suggest that, like Ugajin and Juzenji, he was also seen by some as a ruler of “fundamental destiny” (benming). Indeed, in another of his main cultic centers, the Shoorinzan Darumadera, he is openly associated with Chintaku Reifujin, in other words, Myooken, the god of the Northern Asterism.

The perception of Daruma as shukushin is suggested by other sources, like the Meishukushuu by Konparu Zenchiku. We recall that this work confers to the old man Okina the character of a primordial deity, and claims that the main Japanese gods and Buddhist patriarchs are so many manifestations of Okina. One of these patriarchs is precisely Bodhidharma, whose relationships with Shootoku Taishi are duly reported by Zenchiku. The latter also tells the strange tradition according to which, during a ritual recitation of the Shoomangyoo, one of the priests, having lost the rhythm, was threatening the order of the ceremony, when of frog of the pond in front of the temple, leaping on a rock, began to croak rythmically, and was able to impose the right cadence again. Interrogated about the incident, Shootoku Taishi allegedly declared that this frog was a manifestation of Bodhidharma, who had come to his rescue. Despite the apocryphal nature of that remark, it suggests a conception of Bodhidharma quite different from that of the Zen patriarch. Yet Zenchiku was very aware of the Zen tradition, and at one point he describes Okina in terms borrowed from it. Not only was Bodhidharma a manifestation of the bodhisattva Avalokiteßvara, as the Chinese tradition has it, according to Japanese tradition he is also said to have reincarnated himself in the person of eminent monks like Gyooki and Eisai.[17]

However, the relations between Bodhidharma and Okina as primordial deity, in his role of shukushin, that is, god of destiny and astral deity, but also of stations and limits — so many associations suggested by the term shuku — are more complex than suggested by Zenchiku. We recall that two manifestations of the shukujin were

Hata no Kookatsu and Nichira, two men who are described as supernatural allies of Shootoku Taishi in his fight against the powers of evil represented by Mononobe no Moriya. The same is true of Bodhidharma. We just saw him intervene on two accounts, as protector of a strategic point ((Kataoka) under the form of crossroad deity, and as officiant of a rite for the protection of the state under the form of a batracian. According to a Jooruri play by Chikamatsu, he is also said to have, under the form of a malevolent spirit, blinded Moriya.[18]

A demon come from afar
Like the Korean Nichira, Bodhidharma is a foreigner. He may also be related to another Korean, Shinra Myoojin, the tutelary deity of Miidera. In documents of the Miidera, this mysterious god is traced back to the mountain god of Song shan, who dwelt (like Bodhidharma) in a cave of that mountain, and who became an epidemic god. Although the Chan tradition has not recorded this, Bodhidharma could well have been identified with this mountain god.[19]

Shinra Myoojin had come to Japan at the time of Enchin’s return from China and he had established himself as protector of Miidera. His name, Shinra Myoojin, obviously refers to the Korean kingdom of Silla, but it essentially meant that this god was perceived as an “alien” god. As it turns out, it seems to be originally a Chinese god. In some versions, he is given other names, one of which is King of Song shan, and he is said to have manifested himself a number of times in China to expel pestilence demons. Thus, this god is none other than a mountain god, the god of Song shan — a god who, in the Chan tradition, received the Chan precepts (also called Bodhidharma’s Mind Precepts) from Chan masters of the so-called Northern School. His main temple was a cave of Song shan, the same cave, apparently, where Bodhidharma allegedly sat for nine years in meditation. It seems thus quite possible that, in popular imagination, the figure of the fierce Indian ascetic would have eventually merged with that of the mountain god. But precisely, the mountain god can drive off pestilence because he was himself perceived initially as a pestilence god — at least until he was converted to Buddhism. In any case, this seems to provide the missing link between the early legend of Bodhidharma on Song shan and his later redefinition as smallpox deity.[20]

Another interesting lead is that which connects Shinra Myoojin and the raging god Susanoo. In some sources, the latter, after being exiled from Japan for having threatened his sister Amatarasu, is said to have emigrated to Korea. Susanoo was also assimilated to Gozu Tennoo, the most powerful epidemic god. Like Shinra Myoojin, Susanoo is a fundamentally ambivalent deity, who could protect from epidemics when worshipped properly, but could as well destroy the unbelievers throught the same epidemics. Thus, the priests of Miidera or of Gion Shrine held this veiled threat over the heads of the ruler and his people. This is how the emperor died for having brought on himself the anger of Raigoo, a Miidera priest whose resentful spirit (onryoo) was apparented to Shinra Myoojin.

According to one legend, Susanoo manifested himself in China as the god of Song shan. He first appeared to the Japanese priest Enchin (the monks who founded Miidera and introduced Shinra Myoojin) as theriomorphic figure, with a man’s head and a snake’s body. As such, he calls to mind Ugajin, a god associated with the dragon-goddess Benzaiten. We seem far from Bodhidharma, but maybe not so. The mention of Ugajin brings to mind a representation of Bodhidharma, whose head emerges from the coils of a snake. But, as mentioned earlier, there are some other symbolic associations between Bodhidharma and Ugajin — one of them being the figure of Juuzenji. Let us also note that the representation of Gozu Tennoo standing on a reed boat may shed some light on the strange legendary episode of Bodhidharma crossing the Yangzi river. Epidemic deities were related to water, and often came from the West, crossing large bodies of water. They were also expulsed on reed boats.

The Red Threat
The red robe is obviously one of the elements that, together with his nature as shukushin, contributed to the metamorphosis of Daruma into a deity of epidemics. In particular, the prevalence of smallpox in early modern Japan explains the popularity of the okiagari Daruma doll. As the disease grew endemic, people were resignated to have it once in their life, and only prayed that it would be light. “Treatment by the red” (kooryoohoo) was found in Europe as well. The god of smallpox is said to like the red color, so one tries to please him in the hope of being cured quickly. It is difficult to say whether Daruma was connected to smallpox deities because he is red — or the other way around. At any rate, the red color of Daruma's robe is highly significant.

The symbolism of Daruma has recently been studied by Yoshino Noriko, in a work consecrated to Daruma. Unfortunately, Yoshino tends to reduce all mythological elements to complicated elucubrations on the symbolism of the yin-yang and the Five Phases (wuxing) of Chinese cosmology. If, in Daruma’s case, her theory has the merit of drawing our attention to the symbolic importance of the “red man,” she goes too far when she reduces him to e mere symbol of the Fire element. She even omits to mention that Daruma was a smallpox deity, and she focuses on the New Year Festival, during which Daruma dolls were sold, interpreting it as a fire festival.

One should also mention in this epidemic contect the relation (or affinities) between Daruma and a figure called “orang-outan” (shoojoo). In Chinese and Japanese imagination, the orang-outan was a monkey with human features, who was very fond of wine (hence his crimson face). The term shoojoo is used figuratively to designate a drunkard, and the “orang-outan fever” (shoojoo-netsu) designates scarlet fever.[21] This animal was also famous for its stupidity. According to Kida Sadakichi, toward the Muromachi period, the image of the shoojoo transformed, for obscure reasons, from that of dull anthropoid ape into that of a god of fortune living in the sea (and more precisely in the någa-palace), and which could give immortality to men.[22] It was even for a while included into the group of the “Seven Gods of Fortune.”

In the Noo play “Shoojoo,” a shoojoo appears under the form of a child to an inn-keeper to buy some wine, while another gets trapped in the net of a fisherman, whom he will later reward for having released him. The shoojoo was also believed to possess a wine-flask that never emptied — a sign that he was a god of wealth and immortality. He was also, however, perceived as a malevolent spirit (goryoo), that of individuals who had died in exile. Finally, he came to be perceived as a god of epidemics, and in particular of smallpox — here again, probably because of his red color. His image is sometimes associated to that of Shuuyen Dooji, the youthful demon of ÷eyama, a wine-lover and an epidemic deity. Thus, the hoosoogami festival that took place in 1836 was called shoojoo matsuri.[23]

A shoojoo doll, sometimes resembling the Daruma doll, was worshiped in houses struck by smallpox. The cult of the shoojoo is said to go back to the founder of the Oobaku sect of Zen, the Chinese priest Yinyuan Longqi (J. Ingen Ryuuki), which established a rite centered on this figure in order to alleviate a smallpox epidemics.[24] According to this tradition, the same Ingen served as model for the dolls of the “little monk who bounces back” (okiagari koboshi). That is, in order to thank Ingen for placating the shoojoo and alleviated the epidemics, his followers fabricated an image of him resembling that of the Chinese “old man who never falls” (budaowen, J. futoo-o), and the two images (of the shoojoo and the priest) came to be worshiped side by side. One finds some representations of the shoojoo under the form of two dolls, looking like Daruma (only a little taller), holding a ladle, accompanied by two okigari koboshi (Daruma dolls of both sexes). It is therefore not through a mere coincidence that the Daruma doll can be found near the shoojoo on the domestic altar to the smallpox deities.

To these “epidemic” affinities suggested by the redness of the complexion or of the robe, one could add others, less epidermic, like the elusive relations of Daruma with monkeys in general, and perhaps also with the simian Sarutahiko. For somewhat obscure reasons, Daruma is said to be a protector of horses and monkeys. A rather unusual motif is that of his relation with the “Prince of the stable” (umayado), that is, Shootoku Taishi, whose legend has him born in a stable. On that occasion, Bodhidharma is said to have reincarnated himself as a horse, which neighed three times.[25] This may still have to do with the notion of Daruma as “placenta deity.” Daruma was also the patron of horse-veterinaries, and appears himself in the Satsuma region as a veterinary. The function of protector of horses also calls to mind figures such as Kokuuzoo and Batoo Kannon, and legends about the origins of silkworms and sericiculture. It may be worth mentioning here that Hata no Kootatsu, the contemporary of Bodhidharma in Shootoku Taishi’s legend, is recorded in the Nihon Shoki for putting an end to a millenarist cult whose deity was a “worm.” In the Uzumasa district of the capital, the fief of the Hata, not far from Kooryuuji (where every year the Matarajin Festival or Ox Festival takes place), a shrine dedicated to the deity of silkworms.

Monkeys were apparently used in some rites against smallpox. They were perceived as the messengers of the god Shoozenshin, a deity of Indian origin whose rite was allegedly transmitted to Japan by Bodhidharma. It is worth noting that the names of this god recalls that of Juuzenji, the Hieizan deity whose important role we have discussed, and who also had monkeys as emissaries. In rites against smallpox, one made a monkey dance (saru-mawashi) to determine whether the illness would be light or not. According to the Sarumawashi no ki, “The main deity [honzon] of the sarumawashi is the first patriarch {Bodhidharma}, its protecting deity is Sarutahiko.”[26] The apotropaic function of this rite is underscored by the Saruya denki, which mentions a legend according to which Sarutahiko made monkeys dance in order to rout the demons’ army.[27]

Daruma was therefore one of these “fashionable gods” (hayarigami), which have been described as characteristic of the Edo period. A classic case of hayarigami is the namazu, a catfish-like deity held for responsible of seisms, and which one tried to placate by a cult. Cornelius Ouwehand has described the resurgence of this cult after the great Edo earthquake in 1853.[28] [check date] The affinity it shares with Daruma as god of calamities [yakujin] is sugegsted by a ukiyo-e representing Daruma as namazu. It is a kind of visual game, in which the monster’s mouth becomes the head of Daruma, as he looks through a breach in a wall.[29] According to Hilburg, Daruma was indeed still worshiped at the beginning of this century as a protector against earthquakes.[30] But he also had violent aspects, as one could expect. Another drawing represents him as a monster with long teeth (kikai no Daruma).[31] He was for instance the patron of beggars, and consequently, like the namazu, a figure of the chaos that constantly threatened the established order.[32] The “red” aspect of Daruma takes a darker connotation with the motif of the “bloody Daruma” (chi Daruma), found in various melodramatic plays of the Edo theatrical repertory, in which the image of Daruma is maculated with blood.[33] This kind of associations shows that he was not always, nor everywhere, the innocent companion of children’s play, but was often the witness of darker scenes.

Bodhidharma against the Stream
Let us dwell a moment on a representation well known of the historians of Sino-Japanese art, that of “Bodhidharma crossing the Yangzi on a reed-leef.” The oldest treatment of the theme dates from the beginning of the thirteenth century and it contains an inscription by Rujing (1163-1228), the master of the founder of the Sooto school of Zen, Doogen (1200-1253). A second painting, preserved in Japan, shows an inscrption by the Chan master Wuzhun Shifan (1177-1249).[34] There is also an estampage on stone, dated from the mid-eleventh century, from the Shaolin monastery.[35] A first study of the theme was made by Li Chu-tsing. Li focuses on a painting by Ding Yunpeng, preserved in the Charles A. Drenowatz Collection in Zürich, and finds it to be atypical of Chan paintings on the same theme. He sees in it merely “an intersting interlude in the development of Chan painting.” His interpretation is that of Chan orthodoxy, and his methodology that of classical art history.

A more recent and interesting attempt is that of Charles Lachman. Lachman notes that the first “biography” of Bodhidharma that mentions the strange crossing dates from 1108, and that the theme does not become widespread before the thirteenth century. Wondering why this episode, represented on stone and in painting, was omitted from written records, he remarks: “Unless, of course, the representation of Bodhidharma on a reed had at the time a meaning different from the one it was to acquire later.” He seems to be unto something here, even if in the end he is unable to free himself from the interpretive constraints of traditional Chan. Thus, while claiming, rightly, that the motif of the rushleaf has been on the whole ignored by both art historians and Buddhologists, Lachman himself eludes the problem — not without noticing that, to cross a river as large as the Yangzi, “the rushleaf would not appear to be the obvious solution.”[36]

According to Lachman, who takes up a suggestion from Helmut Brinker, this image combines (or resonates with) various themes and sources, in particular those of “Shakyamuni emerging from the Mountain” (chushan Shijia, J. shussan Shaka) and of “Guanyin with a Willow Branch” (yangliu Guanyin, J. yanagi Kannon). The Rushleaf motif, however, is not in essence a biographical narrative, as heretofore believed,” Lachman tells us,

“but rather a layered and polysemous icon of the paradigmatic patriarch, an image that structurally and thematically makes simultaneous reference to both the Buddha and his momentous decision to emerge from the mountains; to the attainment of nirvana by “crossing to the other shore”; to the arhats who diligently struggle to ford the stream; and to the poetic voice (from the Classic of Poetry) that will not be kept from its desired goal by merely physical obstacles. In some way, each of these strands inscribes the self-salvific efforts and determination that the Ch’an school championed in general and invested in Bodhidharma in particular.”[37]

It is possible that these references played a role in the contexts of Chan or literati painting. But oviously, apart from an allusion to the passage of the Shi jing (“Who says the river is wide? / On a single reed you can cross it!”[38]), none of them mentions the motif they are supposed to explain, that is, the reed. This is the problem when one limits interpretation to the Chan context of patriarchal transmission or to the artistic context, when the figure of Bodhidharma has clearly gone beyond these contexts to diffuse itself in popular culture and merge with folkloric motifs.[39] This second level of interpretation tends to appear rather in minor forms (ukiyo-e, netsuke, e-hon), where the narrative is less controlled than in the orthodox textual tradition. What appears to be a dubious, aberrant syncretism, and therefore unworthy of study, reveals perhaps a deeper logic.

A clue is unwillingly provided by Li Chi-tsing, when he mentions the existence of a Japanese painting of the beginning of the fourteenth century (currently at Joodoji, in Shizuoka Prefecture), comporting an inscription of the Chinese Zen master Yishan Yining (J. Issan Ichinei). This work depicts Bodhidharma “as a massive, brawny figure, with a huge head with impressive features,… holding a trident, [with a] halo around his head.”[40] The motif of the trident calls rather to mind Tantric deities: in the Sino-Japanese context, one knows for instance several representations of the Gandharva-King, a frightening figure who tames the demons of infantile diseases and empales their heads on his trident — while being himself visibly of demonic origin.

The motif of the reed-leaf points toward the same direction. We find in some documents of the Gozu Tennoo Shrine in Tsushima (Owari, modern Gifu Prefecture), a version of the Japanese creation myth in which the goddess Amaterasu, standing on the Floating Bridge of Heaven, stirs the ocean below with the tip of her spear, and creating with the foam thus produced the island of Tsushima. At that moment, an old man appears, standing on a reed-leaf. He introduces himself as the tutelary god of that land, and declares that he will later on become a god of epidemics. In other variants, the old man is clearly designated as Gozu Tennoo, and the reed-leaf becomes a one-pronged vajra, a Tantric ritual instrument, which in turn gives birth to the Japanese archipelago.[41] We recall that, during the ritual of expulsion of epidemics, as it is still performed at Tsushima, Gozu Tennoo, having been duly worshiped in his shrine, is sent off ad patres on a reed boat. The motif of the reed leaf seems therefore to connect Gozu Tennoo and Bodhidharma, as epidemic deities.

Even in the Zen school, another conception, more complex, of Bodhidharma, seems to emerge. Thus, in a late biography of the Sootoo Zen master Doogen, we learn that the latter, having fallen ill during his trip to China, was saved in extremis by the kami Inari, who gave him a pill that “dispels poisons and cures all diseases.” In the earlier versions, however, it was the Chinese deity Daigenshuri, a mountain god, protector of the monastery where Doogen had stayed, who came to the rescue. And in a later variant, it is the daughter of the naaga-king (who in the Lotus suutra gives to the Buddha the wish-fulfilling jewel). She is depicted, emerging from the water to give the remedy to the monks of Doogen’s escort, while a gigantic Daruma emerges from a valley behind the hills.[42]

We recall that, in the Chinese legend, Bodhidharma had been poisoned, which, in mythological logic, makes him a specialist of poisons.[43] Indeed, it is only after two unsuccessful attempts, in which the poison did not seem to affect him, having transmitted his teaching to his disciple Huike, he knowingly took the poison and decided to leave this world. The function of Rector of destinies, which, as we have seen, was perhaps an important aspect of the cult of Daruma, also evokes these texts, widespread in Tendai, and largely inspired from Daoism, on the so-called “Method of Bodhidharma to know the time of one’s death.” We may also note that Daruma and Daigenshuri are worshiped as a pair, at the back of the main altar of the Dharma Hall in Sootoo monasteries. This cult calls to mind that of the “back door” (ushirodo) of Japanese Buddhist temples, dedicated to Matarajin or similar deities, protectors with a dubious past or an ambivalent nature. The image of Daruma is usually located on the left (the north-west), Daigenshuri on the right (on the north-east) — two directions associated to the “gate of demons” (kimon).

Daruma as God of Fortune
We can now return to the question from which we started: Why did Daruma become so popular in the Edo period? It is the result of a complex evolution, which metamorphosed him from a “malevolent spirit” to a crossroad deity, a god of the placenta and a controller of human destinies, and finally an epidemic deity and a god of fortune. Many factors contributed to that evolution. If I insisted here on the symbolic dimension, it is clear that not everything has happened at that level, and that sociological and economic factors have also played a role.[44] The development, from the end of the Muromachi period onward, of large urban and commercial agglomerations like Sakai, Osaka, and Edo, and of centres of production and dissemination of products responding to the new urban culture, must obviously be taken into account. It is at this time that “Daruma markets” appear. Conjointly, the progressive disappearance of social groups like the shoomonji, who, in their door-to-door of the New Year, had played important role in the development and the preservation of rituals centered on certain gods of fortune, and at the same time slowed down their “popularization,” may have been instrumental. According to Komatsu Kazuhiko, these deities, from the moment they were no longer associated to specialized, low-caste groups, lost their aura of strangeness and were folklorized. Such was perhaps the case of Daruma, a deity related to beggars.

Daruma’s popularity is also clearly related to the vogue of the tumbler dolls as good luck charma (engimono). Actually, the first tumbler dolls were not Daruma dolls, but another figure called okiagari koboshi (the little monk who bounces back). The term, like that of Daruma, came to designate prostitutes in the slang of Edo. This “little monk” (or “kid,” another meaning of koboshi), appeared in Japan only toward the Muromachi period, but he had a Chinese predecessor, which seems to have been popular since the Tang. The Chinese doll was called budaoweng (J. futoo-o, “the unmovable old man”). As noted earlier, the notion of okiagari, “bouncing back on one’s feet,” evoked a rapid cure, and in this case the hope of a light smallpox. This symbolism y may have paved the way to Daruma’s transformation into a hoosoogami. Indeed, it is only when these tumbler dolls (okiagari koboshi, okiagari Daruma) came to be associated with smallpox in Japan that they became truly popular, more than they had ever been in China.[45]

In the end, we have to admit the existence, not only of one, but of at least two traditions regarding Bodhidharma. Perhaps, in the same way as Freud distinguished between the manifest and the latent content of dreams, we may distinguish in the present case between the manifest symbolic meaning of Bodhidharma, that of the orthodox Zen tradition which reduces him to a Zen patriarch; and the latent meaning(s) of popular traditions, which rest on constant symbolic dissemination. The manifest meaning tends to impose itself and silence the others, but the latter sometime interrupt its monotonous discourse, and errupt in unexpected places, under the most uncanny aspects. It is some of these aspects, which I have tried to retrieve, transforming Bodhidharma, or rather Daruma, into a man. Thus, Bodhidharma is a versatile god, constantly rebounding, each time with a new face staring at us.

Curtesy of Bernard Faure

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[1] On the development of the legend in China, see Durand-Dastès.

[2] See also the variant provided by the child-song, whose syllables — “Da.ru.ma.sa.n.ga.ko.ro.n.da (“Daruma has fallen down”) -- were used by children to count from one to ten in games of hide-and-seek.

[3] See Richie and ItØ, 226.

[4] Rotermund 1991: 196.

[5] By contrast, in the Kansai region, Daruma was above all related to the merchant class (and without relation with agricultural cycle, in particular with the New Year Festival).

[6] Rotermubd 1998: 19-20. The offering to the deity usually consisted in strips of cloth (nusa) — hence the idea expressed in the legend to cut a part of one’s robe tooffer it. Hence the idea that the deity to which such offerings were made was a “deity who strips away the sleeves” (sodemogi-sama), who required from the traveler a part of his robe, lest the traveler would be thrown to earth and the sleeves of his robe would be torn away. See Rotermund, ibid., 39. This deity also calls to mind Datsueba.

[7] On this question, see Michael Como.

[8] KitØ, Daruma no shosØ, 573.

[9] Ibid.

[10] In French, “to be born with a caul” (être né coiffé) means to be born under a lucky star. However, I have will argue in next chapter, Bodhidharma was not born particularly lucky.

[11] Missancho, abr. of shitchu himitsu sanzen, “secret sanzen within the chamber”]. See Imaeda on missancho, also called missanroku [records of secret interviews; oral transmission reminiscent of esoteric kuden, kirigami daiji, and sanmotsu, see ZenshË no rekishi, Showa 18, Tokyo: ShibundØ, pp. 179-180. I am grateful to James Sanford for introducing me to this material.

[12] See Wumenguan 13.

[13] Suzuki, 289-90.

[14] See Yamamoto, Kamigatari kenkyË 3, Shunjusha 1989.

[15] See for instance, in the case of JËzenji, the SannØ hiyØki, 539.

[16] Suzuki Masataka

[17] The Keiran shËyØshË notes in passing this biographical detail after reporting how, during Eisai’s return trip from China, his boat was followed for a while by a floating island. Afterwards, Eisai reveals that it was actually a priest by the name of HossØbØ, reincarnated as obe of the dragons of the submarine dragon-palace (and assimilated here implicitly to the goddess Benzaiten. See T, 76: 627b. On GyØki as avatar of Bodhidharma, see KitØ.

[18] See ShØtoku taishi e denki, quoted in KitØ, 389-99.

[19] The relation between goryØ and Shinra myØjin is implicit in the identification between the malevolent spirit of the priest RaigØ and the god. The posthumous anger of RaigØ is said to have killed the emperor Go-SanjØ, who, by fear of the Hieizan reaction, had refused to let RaigØ build an ordination platform at Miidera.

[20] Note also that, in the SØtØ Zen tradition, Bodhidharma is usually represented in the main Hall as counterpart of Daigenshuri, another Chinese mountain god (like that of Songyue and Shinra myØjin).

[21] The term shØjØ also designates “a NØ mask, representing the ghost of a young man with similar colors, as well as a red scarf with which — in a magico-therapeutic gesture — one covered the head of the sick individual.” See Rotermund 1991: 274.

[22] See Kida, “Fukujin to shite no shØjØ,” in Kida, Fukujin, 1976; see also U.A. Casal, “Far Eastern Monkey Lore,” MN 12, 1-2, 1956: 48-49. Casal thinks that the figure of the shØjØ may have been influenced by theat of the Greek satyre, another great drinker.

[23] See Fude makase, in Nihon shomin seikatsu shiryØ shËsei, vol. 2, s.v. 1836/12/2; quoted in Rotermund 1991: 274.

[24] See JËshË honsØ kØmoku keimØ [1844], quoted in Rotermund 1991: 96-97.

[25] Kito, 526.

[26] Kito, 527.

[27] Kito, 528.

[28] Ouwehand, Namazu-e.

[29] Kito, 510.

[30] See Hilburg, Man 18 (1918): 57.

[31] Kito, 511.

[32] Kito, 523.

[33] See for instance Asakusa reikenki, quoted by Kito, 403-411.

[34] Tokugawa Asrt Museum, in Toda Teisuke, Mokkei Gyokkan, Suiboku bijutsu taikei 3, Toky: Kodansha 1973: 44; quoted in Lachman, 253.

[35] Lachman 1993: 258.

[36] Lachman 1993: 258. Significantly, the title of his essay has become “Why did the Patriarch Cross the River?” — and the reed/rush appears only in the subtitle, to qualify the Indian patriarch (“The ‘Rushleaf Bodhidharma Reconsidered”).

[37] Lachman 1993: 266.

[38] Burton Watson, The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry: From Early Times to the Thirteenth Century, New York: Columbia University Press, 1984: 25.

[39] The case of the namazu, a favorite motif of some Zen paintings, and Ouwehand’s treatment of its mythological background, constitute another paradigmatic example of the need to go beyond sectarian interpretations.

[40] See Jan Fontein and Money L. Hickman, Zen Painting and Calligraphy, Museum of Fine Arts, Catalog, no 22, Boston 1970: 53-56.

[41] See Yamamoto, Ijin, 586-88. On Japan as a “divine land” in the shape of a one-pronged vajra, see also Keiran shËyØshË, T. 76: 626.

[42] See Echizen no kuni Eiheiji kaisanki (1689), Tokyo University Historiographical Institute. I am indebted to William Duncan for this reference.

[43] Note in this respect that smallpox was perceived by a kind of “fetal” poisoning caused by the mother.

[44] See for instance on this point Andrée Belleville, “Der tori-Markt, ein Glücksfest japanischer Wirte und Geschäftsbesitzer,” doctroral dissertation, Albert-Ludwigs Univerity. Zürich: Zentralstelle der Studentenschaft, 2000.

[45] On Chinese tumblers, see Daruma no shosØ, 574-75; on Korean tumblers, see ibid., 577-78. The development of okiagari-daruma in the countryside (and more particularly and Eastern and Northern Japan) was permitted by another development, that of silkworm breeding. The Daruma doll became a object of good luck (engimono) for sericiculture. The embryological symbolism, that associates Daruma with silkworms (mayu Daruma), may also point toward the practice of mushi-okuri (although silkworms are beneficial, they die in large numbers, and might become goryoo themselves)

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hoosoo-e 疱瘡絵 prints to protect children from smallpox

Daruma Museum

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Additions 2008

2009-07-11T18:38:00.000-07:00

Educational

2009-07-11T18:27:00.000-07:00

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Educational Material with Daruma　

だるまで子供の教育

Indiana University, USA, has a good program to teach Kids of various grades about Japan, using Daruma san as a companion.

Here are instructions for kids to make your own Daruma doll.
Students will:
(1) know the legend of Daruma and how Japanese use a Daruma doll in the society.
(2) create a Daruma doll and use it by filling in one eye and setting up a goal.

Social Studies
Daruma is a good luck symbol for success. Compare and contrast the notion of success between Japanese and American cultures. Japanese "success" often emphasizes "efforts" and "patience," while the American "talents" and "luck." Discuss how such a difference would make people’s attitudes toward living.

Here is one more Daruma doll for the kids to study:

The Legend of Daruma (for Kids)

Daruma is a short name for Budhidharma, a Buddhist priest from India who lives in the sixth century. Daruma sat absolutely still and mediated for nine years. He did not move at all, and after nine years he had lost the use of his arms and legs. In fact, they had withered away. So, Daruma is made with no arms and legs. They have weighted bottoms so that no matter how you roll them, they will always return right side up. It is said that it symbolizes the spirit of patience necessary for success.
source .indiana.edu/~easc/

Lower Elementary level

Procedure:
Use an egg to make a Daruma.

Introduce the idea of wishing. Elicit from the students ways that we use to help us achieve our wishes. Examples are wishing on a star, wishing wells, wishbones, or candles on a birthday cake.

Introduce Daruma-san. Daruma was an Indian philosopher and disciple of Buddha whose full name was Bodhidharma. San is a title of respect. Legend has it that he meditated for so long that he lost the use of his arms and legs. As a result he could not walk, but he epitomized the popular Japanese proverb, "One may fall seven times but will rise up on the eighth."

Daruma became the symbol of determination and perseverance. Daruma dolls are often made with weighted bottoms so when they are tipped over they right themselves. Also, they are usually made without pupils in their eyes. When a wish is made, one pupil is colored in. This wish should be goal-oriented and should involve the wisher in attaining it. When the goal is met, the other eye is colored in.

The students should set an attainable goal, color the doll and one eye only. The traditional color for a daruma is red.

Display the daruma. When individual goals are met, the second eye can be colored in and the daruma taken home.

Elementary Level

Daruma-san, Daruma-san . . . Mr. Daruma, Mr. Daruma
Nira miko shimasho . . . Let us stare at each other
Warattara dame yo . . . You had better not laugh
Ichi ni san shi go . . . One, two, three, four, five

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Daruma Pebbles
This is an entertainment I do with our kids here. We collect pebbles at the local river or at seaside, in the shape of Daruma, but flat. On one side we write a Chinese character of an idea, which we can take as motto for a day, for example: STUDY, LOVE, KINDNESS, HELP and so on.

Every day kids can then choose one pebble from the box or pick one up from the roadside before leaving the home, put it in the pocket and check if they not forget their motto for the day every time they reach into the pocket.

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Kyoiku 教育　＜＞　Education with Daruma

MORE
.... Teaching Material about Japan

Daruma Museum

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Ohaga Michi no Eki

2007-12-26T02:02:00.000-08:00

大垪和　道の駅　山里の駅

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Shamoji Ladle

2007-08-12T18:43:00.000-07:00

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Shamoji ... しゃもじ達磨 ... Ladle
杓文字, 杓、シャモジ

© PHOTO :　kyoudogangu.xii.jp

They are used to scoop rice out of the cooking pot. Also called "Rice Paddles", rice spoons, wood spatula.
They were made from wood or bamboo, but nowadays of course they are made of plastic.

Some temples are famous for the shamoji that people bring as offerings.
! PHOTOS !

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Tiny folk craft of a miniature rice paddle (shamoji) and Daruma in a kiri (paulownia) wood box.
The rice paddle measures 1-7/8". Attached to the rice paddle are two grains of rice. There are some Japanese characters or words written on each rice grain. Daruma is painted on a 3/16" roundish piece of wood. The box measures approximately 1-3/4" x 2-1/4" x 11/16" and has words, a red stamp and a mountain painted on the top.

source : 　kyototraditions.com

MORE
Daruma Dolls from Kyoto Traditions Com

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The island of Miyajima near Hiroshima is famous for inventing the rice ladle. There is even the largest rice paddle of the world on display.
The shops in the small roads of the Island carry lots of junk, many have wooden rice paddles of all sizes. Some Japanese buy such a paddle , write a wish on it, and then send it to a friend, or leave it at a temple.

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... on this day at the temple Zenkoo-Ji 善光寺 in Nagano, the statue of Binzuru is dressed with a straw rope around his head. While the believers touch him with bamboo ladles (shamoji 杓), he is carried around the outer shrine and then back to his original place. People pray for health and good luck for the coming year.

Read more HERE
Ceremony for Binzuru (Binzuru mawashi)

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Please send your contributions to Gabi Greve
Daruma Discussion Forum

Alphabetical Index of the Daruma Museum

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Temple Io-Ji

2007-07-16T18:25:00.000-07:00

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Temple Io-Ji ... 医王寺
This temple is located in Kyoto, Ayabe town.
京都府綾部市

The temple was founded around １４６０～６５ by 安国寺九世妙澤和尚.
Originally in contained a statue of Yakushi Nyorai (hence its name, temple of the Medicine King. But this was stolen and later replaced by an Amida statue.
This temple is more famous for a statue of Amida Nyorai.

This statue of Daruma is about 35 cm high.
Its origin is unknown.
達磨大師像

© PHOTO :ayabe bunkazai

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Daruma Temples, an Overview

Alphabetical Index of the Daruma Museum

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Eraser

2007-06-30T21:03:00.000-07:00

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Eraser (keshigomu) 消しゴム

This is an old one, maybe 30 years old. Used for studentd during the examination period as encouragement.

Photo from my friend Ishino.

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© PHOTO :　~doishun

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Enpitsu 鉛筆 Pencil with Daruma

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Please send your contributions to Gabi Greve
Daruma Discussion Forum

Alphabetical Index of the Daruma Museum

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Daruko clappers

2007-06-20T21:27:00.000-07:00

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Daruko Daruma clappers だる子

Daruko, also Naruko だる子又は鳴子
They are used when dancing during festivals in Takasaki.
Also called rattles. The name is a contraction from
Naruko and Daruma.

and the LOGO DARUMA from this site:

©　takasaki-live

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Here is another "Naruma" なるま

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These NARUKO 鳴子 with different design are also used for other regional dances in Japan.
The "Yosakoi Naruko Odori" dance parade of Kochi in Shikoku every August is especially famous for these clappers. They are old instruments of farmers to scare away birds from the fields. They are black and have yellow sticks to beat the plate.
There is also a famous "Yosakoi Naruko Dancing" song from Takemasa Eisaku.

Farmers in other regions of Japan also used naruko to scare away animals from the harvest.

CLICK for more photos.

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Kokeshi from Naruko Hot Spring なるこ温泉のこけし
鳴子温泉　Naruko Onsen
Kokeshi, Wooden Dolls こけし

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Do not mix this clapper with the toy called "Denden Daiko", a little drum and toy for babies and small children.

Denden Daiko でんでんだいこ, でんでん太鼓
Denden-Drum , twist drum

CLICK for more photos !

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Alphabetical Index of the Daruma Museum

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Namaketaroo

2007-06-16T23:02:00.000-07:00

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Namaketaroo Daruma Ponpon
なまけたろう　だるまポンポン

the Lazy Taroo

© PHOTO :　e-towelya

Namaketaroo
is a manga figure and toy you can take to bed. He is always sleepy and lazy.

. . . CLICK here for Photos !

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Alphabetical Index of the Daruma Museum

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Shamisen

2007-05-30T21:15:00.000-07:00

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Shamisen 三味線

Here is a full set of things from my friend Ishino.

The shamisen or samisen (literally "three flavor strings"), also called sangen (literally "three strings") is a three-stringed musical instrument played with a plectrum called bachi.

Shamisen and Haiku

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Daruma Discussion Forum

Alphabetical Index of the Daruma Museum

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Taiwan

2007-05-28T23:51:00.000-07:00

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Daruma in Taiwan

台湾のだるまさん

中台善寺内のだるま大師です

© PHOTO :　だるまさん色々

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Buddhism in Taiwan

Chan (Zen) Buddhism

Chan focuses on meditation that is able to generate instant enlightenment. Chan Buddhism has no emphasis on a concept of heaven, chanting the name of the Buddha or on moral teaching. Aspects of this type of Buddhism known in the West include the development of physical skills and meditation on paradoxes. Chan has encouraged practitioners to become highly skilled at physical tasks. The idea is that when one masters a physical task to the point that it may be done without thinking, then a deeper awareness of surrounding reality may be achieved.

This is the background to the famous Kung Fu skills of China's Shaolin Monks and the book, “Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance”. Meditation on paradoxes such as the famous “what is the sound of one hand clapping?” is used to jar the mind loose from the bondage of language and enable deep mystical insights into the meaning of meaning.

Buddhism in Taiwan
Orthodox Buddhism has grown in Taiwan, however, when there is a clash between traditional Chinese values and Buddhism, Taiwanese usually choose to interpret Buddhism in terms of Chinese culture, not the other way around. Taiwanese organizations have built more Buddhist temples per capita than anyone else in the world but Taiwanese have much understanding of core Buddhist beliefs such as the Four Noble Truths and reincarnation only plays a minor part in their thinking of life after death.

Fifty years ago as most people in Taiwan looked to the West as the source of all progress Buddhism had the low image of the poor uneducated monk with nothing to offer a society looking to modernize. Today Buddhist organizations are affluent and are sending priests to gain doctorates at prestigious universities in the west.

Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM)
This organization was founded for the spread of Chan Buddhism. They are in the process of building a Buddhist global education complex which will include a research center, a university, a monastery, a museum and international conference hall. The organization is also known for its emphasis on environmental protection and reduction of waste in daily life.

　© OMF/taiwan/resources

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Papermachee Dolls from Taiwan !!!

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Please send your contributions to Gabi Greve
Daruma Discussion Forum

Alphabetical Index of the Daruma Museum

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Beads

2007-05-10T00:18:00.000-07:00

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Beads Daruma ビーズキット　福鈴（福だるま）
ビーズダルマ

Make it yourself with this beads kit.

In four different colors
Little Talismans of "Seven down, eight up".
七転八起の「だるま」の4種類のお守り

source : 　hobbix 2006

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Please send your contributions to Gabi Greve
Daruma Discussion Forum

Alphabetical Index of the Daruma Museum

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