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A Japanese miscellany - University of Oregon

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Otokichi's Daruma 293<br />

Therefore 1 called to Otokichi : —<br />

" Otokichi San ! —<br />

the left eye <strong>of</strong> Daruma Sama ? "<br />

did the children knock out<br />

" He, he! " sympathetically chuckled Otokichi,<br />

— lifting a superb hatsuo to the cutting-bench,<br />

— " he never had a left eye."<br />

" Was he made that way ? " I asked.<br />

"He!" responded Otokichi, — as he swept his<br />

long knife soundlessly through the argent body,<br />

— "the folk here make only blind Darumas.<br />

When I got that Daruma, he had no eyes at<br />

all. I made the right eye for him last year,<br />

after a day <strong>of</strong> great fishing."<br />

"But why not have given him both eyes?"<br />

I queried; — "he looks so unhappy with only<br />

one eye !<br />

"<br />

" He, he I " replied Otokichi, — skilfully rang-<br />

ing the slices <strong>of</strong> pink-and -silver flesh upon a<br />

little mat <strong>of</strong> glass rods,' — " when we have<br />

another day <strong>of</strong> great good fortune, then he<br />

shall be given the other eye."<br />

Then I walked about the streets <strong>of</strong> the village,<br />

peeping into the houses and shops; and I dis-<br />

covered various other Darumas in different stages<br />

1 Such a little glass mat is called sudarl<br />

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