Painting the Daruma's Right Eye: A Ritual to Finish a Wish

A daruma comes with two blank eyes. One is painted when you make a vow, and the other only when the wish comes true.
The ritual is easy to mistake for a story about starting. It is really about finishing.

How do you paint the first eye when you make a vow?

A daruma is a hand-painted doll, built to roll back upright, that people use to hold a wish. At Shirakawa Daruma Sohonpo, a 14th-generation daruma workshop in Shirakawa, Fukushima, we paint the face and leave the eyes blank. When you set a goal, you fill in one of them with a single black dot, traditionally in sumi, a black ink. That is where your wish takes up residence.

Which eye comes first differs by region, by workshop and by household. We tell it as left eye for the vow and right eye for the celebration, a convention you will see in many places, though some reverse it. Pick one order, keep to it, and follow any instructions that come with your doll. One often-told reason for starting on the left links that side with the east and the rising sun, the direction of beginnings.

With one eye in, the doll has a job to do.

Why does the daruma stay one-eyed until the wish comes true?

An exam. A new business. A marriage. A long recovery. Whatever the wish, a single painted eye watching you every day is a strong kind of encouragement. Morning and night, from the corner of a desk or a shelf, the doll seems to say: I'm still watching.

Daruma are built to roll back upright, which is why they stand for nanakorobi yaoki: fall down seven times, get up eight. The half-finished face keeps that promise in front of you until the work is done. Then the day arrives.

When do you paint the right eye?

The day the acceptance letter arrives. The morning a shop opens. The finish line. The signed contract. When a wish comes true, you paint in the second eye. Most of our customers don't do this alone. They do it with family, with friends, with the people who carried them through.

Painting the eye becomes a small ceremony of its own. It marks the result, and it gathers everyone who helped into one small circle. But what becomes of the doll afterward?

What do you do with a daruma once both eyes are painted?

Once both eyes are in, the doll's job is done. Traditionally an old daruma is returned to a temple or shrine and burned in a ceremony called daruma kuyō, often around New Year. Many people bring theirs to the annual Daruma Market (held every February 11 on the old Ōshū Kaidō road in Shirakawa), have it ceremonially burned, and welcome a new one for the year ahead.

But the deeper the prayer, the harder it is to let the doll go, and many people keep it on display instead. Neither choice is wrong. By that point the daruma has already witnessed your story.

Where does the Shirakawa daruma come from, and how has the ritual changed?

According to local tradition, the Shirakawa daruma took shape in the late 1700s, around the time of the Tenmei famine, when the lord Matsudaira Sadanobu is said to have asked the painter Tani Bunchō to design it. Across fourteen generations, the ritual has barely changed.

If you would like to begin your own, our traditional daruma is hand-painted in Shirakawa and waits, one eye open, for your wish. If you would rather hold the brush yourself, there is also a white daruma to paint yourself.

Key takeaways

• A daruma is painted one eye at a time: a single black dot when you set a goal, and the second eye when the wish comes true.
• Which eye comes first varies by region, workshop and household; Shirakawa Daruma Sohonpo tells it as left eye for the vow and right eye for the celebration.
• Daruma are built to roll back upright, which is why they stand for nanakorobi yaoki: fall down seven times, get up eight.
• Once both eyes are painted, an old daruma is traditionally returned to a temple or shrine and burned in a ceremony called daruma kuyō, though many people keep theirs on display.
• The annual Daruma Market is held every February 11 on the old Ōshū Kaidō road in Shirakawa.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which eye do you paint first on a daruma?

It differs by region, workshop and household. Shirakawa Daruma Sohonpo tells it as left eye for the vow and right eye for the celebration, a convention seen in many places, though some reverse it. Pick one order and follow any instructions that come with your doll.

Why does a daruma keep only one eye painted?

The single painted eye watches over you every day until your wish comes true. Because daruma are built to roll back upright, the half-finished face also reminds you of nanakorobi yaoki: fall down seven times, get up eight.

What happens to a daruma after both eyes are painted?

Traditionally, an old daruma is returned to a temple or shrine and burned in a ceremony called daruma kuyō, often around New Year. Many people bring theirs to the Daruma Market in Shirakawa on February 11. Others keep the doll on display.

Written by the team at Shirakawa Daruma Sohonpo, hand-painting daruma in Shirakawa, Fukushima for 14 generations.