Good Fortune DARUMA Charm
The DARUMA that many people are fondly familiar with today is called the Bodhisattva DARUMA and is thought to have been a real person who lived in this world.
He preached that “human beings can overcome the suffering of this world and live strong by training the Buddha-mind inside themselves,” and is said to have continued practicing seated Zen meditation facing a wall for nine years without making a single move.
The origin of the DARUMA starts approximately 300 years ago, when, following Jiang Xingchou’s enshrinement at a household altar of an image of the DARUMA seated in mediation as a protective charm calling good fortune, a temple was erected on Shorinzan in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture and the ninth chief priest of the temple carved wooden figures of the DARUMA, had nearby farmers make paper-mache DARUMA and sold them at the nanakusa (January 7) temple festival.
The eyebrows and beard represent cranes and turtles respectively and the red color of the DARUMA is a wish for “the family to be positive and harmonious” and is fondly familiar to many people as a good luck charm.
Prayer for good fortune (how to insert the eyes)
Another name for the good fortune DARUMA is, we are told, the wishing DARUMA, and there is a custom of inserting eyes in the DARUMA together with one’s wishes.
This DARUMA plays an important role not just as a ornament or folk handicraft, but also a symbol that can be used for all of the turning points in life.
First, on a good day, paint in the left eye, make a wish, and enshrine it in your family altar or alcove.
Then, paint in the other eye and open it the morning after your wish is fulfilled.
Make offerings of boiled rice to the enshrined DARUMA at shrines and Buddhist temples for one year.
Business prosperity, Family wellbeing, Traffic safety, Prayer for success in school, Entrance examinations, Academic achievement, Sound health, Full harvest, Good fortune and long life, Warding off fire damage, Social success, Prayer for safe childbirth, Prayer to win election