Goal setting
or making
wishes

   The Japanese roly-poly doll Daruma, which grants wishes, appeared in the 17th century. And she owes her birth to the wise priest Togak, a follower of the teachings of Bodhidharma.

   In the old days, drought dried up Japan, and the inhabitants often suffered from hunger. Then the priest Togaku, the abbot of the Shorinji temple in the province of Gunma, decided to appease the most revered saint in Japan, Bodhidharma, in the hope that he would intercede for people before the gods.

  During his lifetime, the saint was the first patriarch of Chan Buddhism, the founder of the Chan (Zen) teaching. After 9 years of tireless meditation, enlightenment descended on Bodhidharma. But at the same time, he became blind, because he began to see and know more than ordinary people.

   The patriarch was recognized as a saint and buried in the Shaolin Monastery in 540. People called him differently: in China - Damo, in the Japanese provinces - Bodaidaruma or abbreviated as Daruma. It is believed that after the death of Bodhidharma, he approached the gods and began to fulfill the cherished desires of ordinary people. Therefore, it was to the enlightened patriarch of Chan Buddhism that the abbot of Shorinji, the temple in which Bodhidharma's precepts were carefully kept, decided to ask for help.

  Togaku went to the master Yamagata Goros and asked him to make a copy of Bodhidharma in the form of a small paper doll without eyes. The master made a tumbler doll depicting a saint in meditation. Togaku brought it to his cell, put it on the window and began to tirelessly pray for help. For a moment, Togaku thought he heard a voice urging him to draw one eye on the doll, plow the parched earth, and continue praying. The pastor did just that.

   A few weeks later, the drought receded, rains fell in Japan, watering the land. Then the priest ordered all the peasant families to make a Daruma doll each, draw one eye on it and pray to the saint for help, asking him to tell him when to sow the fields so that the next year would bring the province a harvest.

   A year later, the harvest turned out to be so rich that the peasants were able not only to feed their families, but also to sell part of the goods to neighboring cities. And the dolls of Bodhidharma, in gratitude, drew a second eye, symbolizing the enlightenment of the saint. The rector of the temple offered the peasants to make figurines of the saint and sell them to other cities and villages. This craft began to bring additional income to people. Since then, it has become customary in Japan to make tumbler dolls out of paper and ask them for help in fulfilling a cherished desire.