Daruma at Japanese New Year: Hatsumode and Dondoyaki
Every mid-January, shrines and temples across Japan burn last year's daruma on purpose. The question we hear most from international customers is: why burn something so beautiful? The answer starts at New Year, when daruma plays a part in three distinct moments.
Quick answer: At Japanese New Year, daruma appears in three moments: Hatsumode, the first shrine or temple visit, when many people buy a new one; setting a wish by painting the first eye; and Dondoyaki, the mid-January bonfire, around January 14-15, where last year's daruma are burned with thanks.
Shirakawa Daruma Sohonpo, a 14th-generation daruma workshop in Shirakawa, Fukushima, makes daruma: round, hand-painted papier-mache wish dolls with blank eyes. You paint in the first eye when you make a wish and the second when it comes true. The three New Year moments are Hatsumode (the first shrine or temple visit of the year), setting a new wish, and Dondoyaki (the mid-January bonfire where old daruma are burned). Below is what happens at each, and how to follow the same rhythm if you live outside Japan.
What Is Oshōgatsu, the Japanese New Year?
Oshōgatsu is the Japanese New Year, and it traditionally runs from January 1 to 3. Many businesses close, families travel home, and the streets go quiet. It is one of the stillest times of the Japanese year.
December 31 is treated less as an ending than as a turning point. The old year is cleaned away, the house is decorated, and the new year is welcomed with a set of small rituals. Daruma belongs to that set, and its first appearance is at the shrine gate.
What Is Hatsumode, the First Shrine Visit?
Hatsumode is the first visit of the year to a Shinto shrine or Buddhist temple. Most people go in the first three days of January, though some wait until later in the month. The crowds can be enormous: Tokyo's Meiji Shrine is often reported to draw roughly three million visitors over those three days.
What people do at Hatsumode:
- Pray for the year ahead: health, family, work
- Buy omamori (cloth amulets) for protection
- Draw omikuji (paper fortunes)
- Buy a new daruma for the year's wish
- Bring last year's daruma back to be burned (see Dondoyaki below)
A daruma bought at this time of year usually sits in the home or office for the following twelve months, keeping your wish in view. So what do you actually do with it once it is home?
How Do You Set a New Year Wish with a Daruma?
One common way to use a daruma at New Year:
- Buy or receive a new daruma at Hatsumode, or before. Many shops sell them in late December.
- Choose one wish for the year and make it specific.
- On New Year's Day (or shortly after), paint the first eye and say the wish out loud. Which eye comes first differs by region and by maker, so follow the custom of your doll or the instructions that come with it.
- Place the daruma somewhere you will see it, at home or at work.
- Through the year, look at it now and then and recommit to the wish.
- When the wish comes true, paint the second eye and celebrate.
- When the year is over, return the daruma to a shrine or temple, at the next Hatsumode or at Dondoyaki, so it can be burned with thanks.
Step one asks you to choose a wish. Here is what people most often choose.
What Are Common New Year Wishes?
These six come up again and again:
- Health, for oneself and family, is among the most common
- Career success: a promotion, a new role, a growing business
- Academic achievement: passing entrance exams, for students and their parents alike
- Love or marriage: finding a partner, getting engaged
- Family: having a child, welcoming grandchildren, harmony at home
- Self-improvement: quitting smoking, losing weight, learning a skill
A daruma does not care how big the wish is. A small, specific goal works as well as a life-changing one. Twelve months later, the doll meets the fire.
What Is Dondoyaki, the Ceremonial Fire in Mid-January?
Dondoyaki (どんど焼き, also called sagichō in some regions) is most often held around January 14-15, though dates and venues vary by region. Shrines, temples and local communities build a large bonfire. Last year's amulets, talismans and daruma are burned in it, together with shimekazari, kadomatsu and other New Year decorations.
Traditionally the fire sends the New Year deities back and carries away the old year's blessings and prayers. Many places also roast mochi or dango over the embers, and eating them is said to keep illness away for the year.
In practice, the fire does three things:
- Releases last year's wishes, whether or not they came true
- Clears away the old year's decorations and charms
- Makes room for the new year's wish
Why Burn the Daruma?
Back to the question from the top: "Why burn something so beautiful?"
In Japan, objects that have carried a prayer are not thrown out with the trash. They are returned to a shrine or temple and released with thanks, and burning is the traditional way to do it (the ceremony for daruma is called daruma kuyō). The daruma's job was to witness your year. Burning it closes that chapter and thanks the doll for its work.
Not everyone does this. Some people keep a daruma that meant a great deal to them, and that is a personal choice. But the fire is meant as a kindness to the doll, not a punishment. Daruma is only one thread in a much bigger New Year tapestry.
What Other New Year Traditions Should You Know?
Daruma is one part of a much larger set of New Year customs:
- Otoshidama: money envelopes given to children
- Osechi-ryōri: traditional New Year dishes packed in stacked boxes
- Kadomatsu: pine and bamboo arrangements placed by the entrance
- Shimekazari: sacred rope decoration hung above the door
- Joya no Kane: temple bells rung 108 times around midnight on December 31, for the 108 worldly desires in Buddhist teaching
- Toshikoshi soba: buckwheat noodles eaten on New Year's Eve, for a long life
How Can International Customers Honor the Tradition?
You do not need to be in Japan to take part. Here is a simple way to follow the same rhythm at home:
- Buy a new daruma in late December. Order early; December is our busiest month. If you like to do the painting yourself, our white daruma for painting yourself is made for that.
- On January 1, paint the first eye and say your wish for the year out loud.
- Display the daruma where you will see it every day.
- Whenever your wish is fulfilled, paint the second eye. If the year passes and it has not come true, that is fine; the daruma is there to keep you going, not to judge you.
- At the end of the year (or the next New Year), burn the daruma respectfully in a fire pit if local rules allow, keep it as a memento, or give it to someone who will look after it.
If you do burn it, check local fire regulations first and keep the fire small and attended.
Why Do Annual Rituals Still Matter?
Yearly resolutions, vision boards and goal trackers all try to do what a daruma does, but a daruma is a physical object. It sits on your shelf, it has one eye waiting to be filled in, and you cannot swipe it away. Daruma dolls have been part of Japanese life since the Edo period, and the New Year remains the time when many people pick one up and start again.
Key takeaways
- Japanese New Year (Oshōgatsu) traditionally runs from January 1 to 3, and daruma plays a part in three moments: Hatsumode, setting a new wish, and Dondoyaki.
- Hatsumode is the first shrine or temple visit of the year; Tokyo's Meiji Shrine is often reported to draw roughly three million visitors over the first three days of January.
- Dondoyaki is most often held around January 14-15, though dates and venues vary by region, and last year's daruma, amulets and New Year decorations are burned in it.
- Daruma are burned because objects that have carried a prayer are returned to a shrine or temple and released with thanks, not thrown out with the trash.
- Which eye is painted first differs by region and by maker; the second eye is painted when the wish comes true.
Frequently Asked Questions
When do you paint the first eye of a daruma at New Year?
On New Year's Day or shortly after, while saying your wish out loud. Which eye comes first differs by region and by maker, so follow the custom of your doll or the instructions that come with it.
Why are daruma burned at Dondoyaki?
In Japan, objects that have carried a prayer are returned to a shrine or temple and released with thanks, and burning is the traditional way to do it. The daruma witnessed your year, and the fire closes that chapter and thanks the doll for its work.
Do you have to burn your daruma after the year ends?
No. Some people keep a daruma that meant a great deal to them. Outside Japan, you can burn it in a fire pit if local rules allow, keep it as a memento, or give it to someone who will look after it. If you burn it, check local fire regulations and keep the fire small and attended.
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- How to Make a Wish with a Daruma
- What to Do When the Wish Comes True
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Written by the team at Shirakawa Daruma Sohonpo, hand-painting daruma in Shirakawa, Fukushima for 14 generations.