Daruma Doll - Symbol of Good luck (FD20082020-3)

 

Daruma Doll is actually a japan culture lucky item. This doll is actually model according to a monk name bodhidharma whom had a very persistence and firm in achieving his spiritual goal. But the main reason it caught my attention are the symbolism behind daruma "fall down 7 times, get up 8 times" . A very useful symbolism that remind one to get up everytime one falls down other than the belief that it is a good luck talisman.

So i did a bit reading about the daruma doll. The actual daruma doll was design in a way that when the doll fall down, it will get up by it own self . Each of its pattern and colour on the doll are actually representing a part of animal good omen such as the crane eye and tortoise . The daruma doll was originally created to solve the over demand of talisman coming from the temple . It was also believe that at a later time, it was commission to farmers as a way to earn extra income by enable them to create their own daruma doll to sell (the mold was develop by the temple and given to them) .

So, the actual daruma usually come in red color with blank white eyes. The blank eyes are meant to be colour by the person with blank ink. When a person had decided to set a goal , the person are suppose to colour one of the blank eye (what i mean here is draw an eye for the daruma doll ) . And if the person goal had been achieve , the person will color the other daruma eye . And when the new year come, the daruma doll (regardless whether the goal is achieve or not )are to bring back to the temple to be burn . The temple will do some ritual chanting while burning the dolls. After that , the person can purchase a new daruma doll  to be place in his house again. And every year, the daruma doll are suppose to be bigger than the previous year. it is said that one are suppose to have only one daruma in their home and only the head of the house can colour the eye (although it seem to me that there other business place display more than one daruma dolls, each for different purpose such as health and safety) .      

The daruma doll that come with the black eyes seem to be appear after the incident of red pox which happen in japan during that time (as it is said that children are having red pox in their eyes making it difficult to be cure ). Therefore it was later on the daruma dolls are added with the black eyes as a protection for the children from sickness (including eye sickness).

The daruma dolls culture got even further when there was a election in japan back then where one of the  candidate brought a daruma doll and put in the office . And the candidate did win after that . And since then, the practise of putting daruma dolls for election by participating candidates started .

 It is said that even the silk farmers since then do put a white color daruma for their silk business , praying their silkworm will produce good harvests as it is believe that silk business require a great deal of luck to success.

There are also people claim that their wish did fulfill with the help of goal setting daruma dolls .

Therefore if you are looking for a gifts to encourage someone to achieve their dream, you can purchase daruma doll as now daruma dolls come in a variety of size .

As for the daruma body colour , it symbolise different meaning :
Red - Good luck / Success of Safety in All Aspects
White - long life /  harmony / purification , new birth , best wishes / suitable for wedding gift
Black - protect from evil influences and successful year / good for business
Green - for good health
pink - for lovers
yellow - for security and protection / safety
gold - for wealth
purple - studies academy reason / for raising to high rank and spremacy
orange - for school success
Blue - personal achievement and success