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A Japanese miscellany - University of Oregon

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Otokichi's Daruma 289<br />

["Once! twice! . . . Ever the red-hooded<br />

Daruma heedlessly sits up again ! "] From this<br />

little song it would seem that the form <strong>of</strong> the<br />

toy has not been much changed since the seven-<br />

teenth century ; Daruma still wears his hood, and<br />

is still painted red — all <strong>of</strong> him except his face.<br />

Besides the Snow-Daruma already described,<br />

and the toy-Daruma (usually made <strong>of</strong> papier-<br />

mJche), there are countless comical varieties <strong>of</strong><br />

Daruma: figures moulded or carved in almost<br />

every kind <strong>of</strong> material, and ranging in size from<br />

the tiny metal Daruma, half-an-inch long, de-<br />

signed for a pouch -clasp, to the big wooden<br />

Daruma, two or three feet high, which the Japan-<br />

ese tobacconist has adopted for a shop-sign. . . .<br />

Thus pr<strong>of</strong>anely does popular art deride the holy<br />

legend <strong>of</strong> the nine years' meditation.<br />

19<br />

TOY-DARUMA

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