Daruma Dolls
The Eyes, the Colours and Where to Find One

A daruma is a round, weighted papier-mâché figure of Bodhidharma, the monk who founded Zen in China, sold in Japan as a good luck charm for a goal or a new year. Its eyes are left blank. You fill in one eye when you make the wish and the other when it comes true, and because it rights itself every time it is pushed over, it stands for the saying "fall down seven times, get up eight". The makers' cooperative in Takasaki, in Gunma, says its members make most of Japan's papier-mâché daruma, about 900,000 a year in its survey of around 2003, and in 2026 the year's first daruma market filled the avenue outside Takasaki Station on January 1 and 2.

Below are the face and the eyes, the colours, what happens to a daruma when its year is over, and where to find one: Takasaki's workshops, the markets of January to March, and Katsuoji outside Osaka. We checked each fact on the official sites of the temples, the Takasaki makers' cooperative and the local governments on October 22, 2026; the sources are at the end.

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WHAT A DARUMA IS

The figure is named after Daruma Daishi, Bodhidharma. Shorinzan Darumaji tells his story this way: born about 1,600 years ago, a prince of Kanchipuram in southern India, he became a monk, sailed to China in old age and sat facing a cave wall near the Shaolin temple for nine years. The round daruma is that seated figure, red because of the robe drawn over his head, with his hands and feet hidden inside it.

The daruma sold as a good luck charm began in Takasaki. Shorinzan Darumaji, a Zen temple of the Obaku school on a hillside in Hanadaka, says that after the eruption of Mount Asama in 1783 and the famine that followed, its ninth abbot, Togaku, carved a wooden mould from a one-brush painting of the seated Bodhidharma by the temple's founder, Shin'etsu, and taught a farmer of Toyooka village, Yamagata Tomogoro, how to make papier-mâché daruma from it. They were first sold at the temple's fair on the seventh day of the new year.

The Takasaki face

A Takasaki daruma has the eyebrows of a crane and a moustache shaped like a turtle, the crane and turtle being Japan's two auspicious animals. Wishes such as safety for the household or good business are written on either side of the face, the body is decorated in gold, and the belly reads fukuiri, "fortune within". The Gunma Daruma Manufacturers' Cooperative, whose forerunner was founded in 1915, has more than 50 member makers, and Takasaki daruma were designated a traditional craft of Gunma in 1993 and registered as a regional trademark in 2006. Today the paper body is formed in a mould by vacuum, weighted at the base, coated in gofun, a white powder made from shells, and dipped or sprayed red; the face is still painted by hand, one by one.

ONE EYE FOR THE WISH AND ONE FOR THANKS

The custom is broadly the same wherever you buy one: you give the daruma one eye as you make a wish or set a goal, and the second when the wish comes true or the year has passed safely. Shorinzan Darumaji asks you to quiet the mind first. If a monk at the temple has already marked the first eye with a dot, you paint the full eye over that dot.

Which eye comes first depends on whom you ask:

Which eye goes first, as each source explains it, checked October 22, 2026

Source	First eye	Second eye
Shorinzan Darumaji, Takasaki	On your right as you face it	The other, when the wish is granted or the year has passed safely
Gunma Daruma Manufacturers' Cooperative	The daruma's left eye, on your right; recommended, though the order is not fixed	The other, when the wish is granted
Jindaiji, Tokyo, at the March market	The daruma's left eye, with the Sanskrit letter a, for beginnings	The daruma's right eye, with un, for fulfilment, then returned to the temple
Katsuoji, Minoh, Osaka	The daruma's right eye, on your left, as a signature	The daruma goes onto the temple's shelves once the goal is reached

The cooperative's answer is the most relaxed: it recommends the left eye, citing the old idea that the left is the higher seat, then says there is in fact no rule on the order. Filling in the eye, it says, stands for opening the eye of the mind. The makers once painted wide-open eyes themselves before handing a daruma over; buyers painting their own came later.

Katsuoji's version

Katsuoji, in the hills above Minoh, north of Osaka, is known for its kachi daruma, "winning daruma". The temple says the word "winning" here means overcoming your own weaker self, and that writing a goal on the daruma and giving it an eye is like signing a pledge to yourself, kept by doing your best each day. You write the purpose on the base, a goal for the next 365 days on the back, and sign the daruma's right eye before filling it in black. When the goal is reached, the daruma is placed on the temple's daruma shelves with thanks.

SEVEN FALLS AND EIGHT RISINGS

A daruma has a weight in its base, so however you push it, it rolls upright again. That is the saying nanakorobi yaoki, fall down seven times and get up eight, and the Takasaki cooperative reads the steady, low centre of the figure as a calm mind able to face any difficulty.

In Gunma the saying had a second, practical meaning. The province was silk country, and a silkworm sheds its skin four times before it spins a cocoon. Farmers said a silkworm "rises" when it breaks out of its old skin and starts to move again, so a daruma that always rose became the guardian of the silkworm harvest. The cooperative traces the spread of the daruma to farmhouses across northern Kanto to that wish for a good crop of cocoons, and its timeline records that sales grew after the port of Yokohama opened in 1859 and silk exports took off. The same opening brought in an imported scarlet pigment, and with it brighter red daruma.

RED AND THE OTHER COLOURS

Red is the classic daruma. Besides Bodhidharma's robe, the cooperative's history gives a second reason: in Edo, when smallpox spread, people believed red things kept illness away, and red daruma were set by children's pillows.

At the markets you will also find daruma in other colours, and many guides give each colour its own wish. Asked whether the colours mean different things, Shorinzan Darumaji answers that they do not: a daruma takes on its meaning through the wish you make when you fill in its eye. Choose the colour you like, and the size that suits where it will sit. The cooperative adds a custom about size: when a wish comes true, some people buy a slightly larger daruma for the next one, and if it did not, the makers suggest the same size again.

WHEN THE YEAR IS DONE

A daruma is usually kept for a year, or until its wish is fulfilled, and then returned to be burned in a ceremony called otakiage. The cooperative asks that it never be thrown away as rubbish, and suggests taking it to a nearby shrine or temple, or to a local New Year bonfire where seasonal decorations are burned.

• Shorinzan Darumaji receives daruma every day from 9:00 to 17:00 at a desk between the main hall and the Daruma Hall, with an offering of whatever you choose. Its largest burning is on January 15, and every daruma left in the main hall is given a memorial service at the year-end cleaning in December. It accepts daruma, talismans and charms only, without bags or boxes.
• The Takasaki Daruma Market collects daruma from visitors; in 2026 the cooperative burned them on January 29 in Hanadaka, the district of Shorinzan.
• Jindaiji opens a place to leave daruma from February 28 before its March market.
• Katsuoji places fulfilled daruma on its shelves.

The charms and talismans of shrines, and the other lucky objects of the Japanese New Year, are in Omamori: Japanese Shrine Charms and What Each One Is For → and Japanese Lucky Charms: Maneki Neko, Kadomatsu and Wind Chimes →.

WHERE TO FIND ONE

Takasaki

Takasaki is the place to see daruma made. The cooperative's makers are centred on the Toyooka and Yawata districts, and the cooperative says 72 craftspeople carry on the work. Shorinzan Darumaji stands above them on its hill, about 20 minutes by taxi from the West Exit of Takasaki Station or 20 minutes on foot from Gunma-Yawata Station. The German architect Bruno Taut lived in a cottage in its grounds, Senshintei, from August 1934 for two years and three months. The temple's shop is open from 10:00 to 16:00.

The temple's daruma painting room, Zuiunkaku, is open every day, closing only for snow or typhoons. You paint a plain daruma yourself: ¥1,500 for one 12 cm high or ¥2,000 for 15 cm, tax included, in about 30 minutes with no time limit, from 10:00 to 15:30. No booking is needed, though groups of ten or more are asked to book, and a monk can then perform the eye-opening for the daruma you painted.

On August 9, Takasaki Daruma Day, the cooperative holds Darumatsuri; in 2026 it included papier-mâché making in the old way.

The daruma markets

Daruma are sold all year, but the custom of a new daruma for a new year fills the markets of January to March; at Takasaki's, the makers call out to the crowd from their own stalls. Four of the best known:

Daruma markets and their dates, from the organisers' official pages, checked October 22, 2026

Market	Where	When	What to know
Takasaki Daruma Market	The avenue outside the West Exit of Takasaki Station, Gunma	January 1 and 2, 2026, 10:00 to 16:00; the 2027 dates are not yet published	The organisers call it the earliest daruma market of the year in Japan; it drew 370,000 people in 2020. A 2.8 m daruma stands on the street.
Shorinzan Nanakusa Taisai Daruma Market	Shorinzan Darumaji, Takasaki	January 6 and 7 on the temple's calendar	The fair where Takasaki's daruma were first sold, at the temple where they began.
Bishamonten Taisai	Myohoji, Fuji, Shizuoka	The 7th to 9th days of the first month of the old lunar calendar, so the date moves each year	The city of Fuji calls it one of Japan's three great daruma markets.
Jindaiji Daruma Market	Jindaiji, Chofu, western Tokyo	Usually March 3 and 4	About 300 stalls, mostly daruma, as the temple's plum trees bloom. Monks write a Sanskrit letter in the left eye of daruma bought there, 9:00 to 16:30.

On market days, expect crowds and traffic controls; Jindaiji asks visitors to come by public transport, and the temple says more than 100,000 people come over the two days. For when these fall against the rest of the Japanese year, see Japanese Festival Calendar: Holidays and Customs by Month →; the November markets for bamboo rakes, another lucky charm of the year's end, are in Tori no Ichi: Tokyo's Kumade Rake Fair and Its Dates →.

Katsuoji in Osaka

Katsuoji is the 23rd temple of the Saigoku pilgrimage, set in grounds of about 26 hectares in the Meiji no Mori Minoh Quasi-National Park. Its daruma are sold at the temple, and entry is ¥500 for adults. It is about 15 minutes by taxi from Minoh-Kayano Station. On weekends and holidays in the autumn and New Year seasons its car park takes reservations only, and in November 2025 it stayed open until 20:30 on weekends and holidays for autumn illuminations.

WHERE STAYGO COMES IN

STAYGO plans private trips across Japan from Tokyo. A daruma can fit a trip on the day of a market, or in a quiet hour with the people who make them. If you would like to paint your own and give it its first eye in a maker's workshop in Takasaki, tell us your dates and we will ask what can be arranged and come back with what each workshop offers. Shorinzan Darumaji's painting room is open to anyone without booking, and sits easily in a day in Gunma. We arrange everything in your names, and you pay the hotels, workshops, restaurants and guides directly, with no commission or markup from us. Trips are planned on our Signature plan, or as Bespoke for longer and more complex trips.

SOURCES AND HOW WE CHECKED

We read the official pages listed below on October 22, 2026. We did not contact the temples, the cooperative or the organisers, and we did not use dates or figures from guidebooks, booking sites or press coverage. Customs differ from temple to temple, and dates and prices can change.

• Shorinzan Darumaji, the birthplace of the good luck daruma, Bodhidharma and frequently asked questions: origin, face, eyes, colour and red robe
• Shorinzan Darumaji, daruma memorial service and annual events: returning a daruma, the January 15 burning and the January 6 and 7 market
• Shorinzan Darumaji, daruma painting, hours and access and Bruno Taut: prices, hours, booking and the cottage
• Gunma Daruma Manufacturers' Cooperative, about Takasaki daruma, history, how they are made and frequently asked questions: silkworms, smallpox, output, craft, eye order, size and returning
• Gunma Daruma Manufacturers' Cooperative, about the cooperative, Takasaki Daruma Market 2026 and Darumatsuri 2026: members, market dates and hours, August 9
• Takasaki Daruma Market, official site and the 2026 burning: earliest market, visitors, large daruma and the January 29 ceremony
• Gunma Official Tourist Guide, Takasaki daruma: a new daruma at New Year
• Jindaiji, the daruma market: dates, stalls, visitors, the eye letters and the place to return daruma
• City of Fuji, Koho Fuji, April 2025: the Bishamonten festival at Myohoji and its lunar dates
• Katsuoji, winning daruma and hours and access: the name, the eye and the pledge, entry, taxis and parking

QUESTIONS PEOPLE ASK ABOUT DARUMA

Which eye do you fill in first on a daruma?

Shorinzan Darumaji and the Takasaki makers' cooperative fill in the eye on your right as you face the daruma, its own left eye, when the wish is made, and the other when it comes true. Katsuoji in Osaka signs the opposite eye first, and the cooperative says there is in fact no fixed order.

What do the different daruma colours mean?

Red comes from Bodhidharma's red robe, and in Edo red was believed to keep smallpox away. Many guides give other colours their own wishes; Shorinzan Darumaji says the colours carry no difference in meaning: the daruma takes on its meaning from the wish you make when you fill in its eye.

What do you do with a daruma after your wish comes true?

Give it its second eye, and when its year is over take it back to be burned in an otakiage ceremony. The Takasaki cooperative asks that it never be thrown away as rubbish. Shorinzan Darumaji receives daruma every day from 9:00 to 17:00, and Jindaiji opens a place for them from February 28.

When are the daruma markets in Japan?

Takasaki's ran on January 1 and 2 in 2026 outside Takasaki Station, Shorinzan Darumaji's on January 6 and 7, the Bishamonten festival in Fuji on the 7th to 9th days of the lunar new year, and Jindaiji's in Tokyo usually on March 3 and 4.

Can you paint your own daruma in Japan?

Yes. Shorinzan Darumaji in Takasaki has a painting room open every day from 10:00 to 15:30: ¥1,500 for a 12 cm daruma or ¥2,000 for 15 cm, with no booking needed except for groups of ten or more.