Fall down seven times, get up eight times

Daruma dolls are the embodiment of the Japanese proverb, 七転び八起き, Nanakorobi, yaoki. Fall down seven times, get up eight times. They are a receptacle for our wishes, and they remind us to never give up striving to achieve our goals.

Daruma was modeled after an ancient Buddhist priest

Daruma dolls are modeled after the 5th-century founder of Zen Buddhism, Bodhidharma. It is said that he entered a cave near the famous Chinese Shaolin monastery where he meditated facing a wall for nine years. So dedicated was he that when he fell asleep while meditating, his anger drove him to cut off his eyelids. They fell to the ground, and tea bushes sprouted. Green tea was thereafter used by practitioners of Zen to keep themselves awake during meditation.

In the 12th century, along with Zen, Buddhist priest Eisai brought tea seeds to Japan where he cultivated the plants and, by and by, green tea’s popularity grew. But I digress.

Now lacking eyelids, Bodhidharma continued his meditation. As the years passed, his arms and legs fell off from disuse, and that leaves us with the shape of a Daruma doll.

The Daruma is rounded, so if it rocks over, it uprights itself. When we fail in our attempts to reach our goal, we should not give up, but we should be like a Daruma doll, righting ourselves and keeping on. As the proverb says:

Fall down seven times, get up eight times.

Daruma dolls

Papier-mâché Daruma dolls, just like we see today, began to be produced in the Edo era (1603-1867). They were painted red, as that has long been believed to be the color that wards off evil and disease. To make Daruma even more auspicious, the eyebrows and beard were sometimes painted in the shape of a tortoise or a crane, both symbols of long life. Sometimes other symbolic shapes were added to his features.

As the years passed, some Daruma were painted white — another lucky color. Then in the 20th century, things got wild. There were gold, green, and yellow Daruma — and today, anything goes. I have even seen Daruma dolls in the shape of Amabie, Japan’s Covid-19 guardian yōkai, or supernatural being.

When we buy a Daruma, the eyes are blank. As we set our goal, usually one that can be achieved within a year, we paint the left eye. When we reach our goal, we paint the right eye. The bigger the goal, the larger the Daruma we should use.

When we make our first visit to a shrine at the start of the new year, hatsumōde, we bring along our Daruma dolls to be burnt by the Shinto priest along with our household protection amulets and the last year’s omamori charms. Even if we did not achieve our goal, we still burn the old Daruma and buy a new one for a fresh start in the new year.

How about getting a Daruma doll to mark your goals for the coming year? Every day, as you look into its incomplete face, your determination will be renewed to keep on track.

And it seems you don’t need to visit Japan to buy your own. Daruma dolls are being sold on none other than Amazon.*

*This affiliate link means that if you were to buy something on Amazon through that link, I would get a small portion of the sale price at no extra cost to you.

The post Daruma Dolls for Setting and Achieving Goals—A Japanese Twist on New Year’s Resolutions first appeared on More Than Tokyo and is written by Diane Tincher.

Blessings from the God of the New Year

Kagami-biraki refers to the Japanese practice of cracking open the hard, dried kagami mochi at the end of the New Year’s holidays, as well as the opening of sake barrels at celebratory events.

Kagami mochi, “Mirror rice cakes”

During Japan’s New Year’s holidays, people display half spheres of mochi, pounded rice cakes, called kagami mochi, “mirror rice cakes.” Two rounded cakes are placed on a wooden offering stand, a smaller cake stacked upon a larger, and topped with a daidai, Japanese bitter orange.

These may look like mere festive decorations, but they play an important role in New Year’s traditions. They are where the Toshi-kami, the God of the New Year, stays during his holiday visit. Kagami mochi also hold symbolic meaning.

Kagami means mirror. This name could have been given due to the shape of the mochi which resembles the round mirrors used for centuries in Japan, or it could be an allusion to Amaterasu’s mirror, one of Japan’s Three Imperial Treasures.

Mirrors are deeply significant in the Shinto religion. They reflect the spirit of Kami, the all-encompassing life force deity, and are often found in shrine sanctuaries.

On top of the “mirror mochi” is a daidai, bitter orange. Daidai is a homonym for “generations.” Much like the many symbolisms of New Year’s osechi-ryori foods, the daidai‘s use on the top of the kagami-mochi represents a prayer for the family’s continuance from generation to generation.

The visit of the Toshi-kami, the God of the New Year

The Toshi-kami is first welcomed into households through the kadomatsu, pine and bamboo decorations that adorn both sides of the front door. The Toshi-kami is not only the god who brings blessings and bountiful harvests in the new year, but he merges with the collective spirit of a household’s ancestors, the sorei, who visits the family at this time.

The period during which the Toshi-kami visits over the new year’s holidays is called Matsu no Uchi, 松の内, “within the pines.”

Burning the kadomatsu

At the end of the Matsu no Uchi, New Year’s decorations are burned, sending the Toshi-kami back to the realm of the spirits. 

After the Great Meireki Fire of 1657 that destroyed approximately 60% of Edo (now Tokyo), in addition to other fire preventative measures, the shogun shortened Matsu no Uchi so that the flammable pine decorations would be disposed of sooner. He declared that from henceforth, Matsu no Uchi would end on the seventh day of the first month.

Eating kagami-mochi

Shortly after the kadomatsu are burned, generally around January 11 depending on local customs, the now dried and cracked kagami-mochi is broken into pieces, added to soups or roasted, and eaten by family and friends. This custom is called kagami-biraki, 鏡開き, opening the rice cakes. 

By eating the mochi that has been home to the Toshi-kami, people are imbued with spiritual power and blessings for a safe, healthy year.

How the mochi is broken is important, though.

In the age of the samurai, from the 14th to the 19th centuries, it was considered an ill omen to cut the rice cake with a blade as it evoked the image of seppuku, the samurai’s noble suicide, so a wooden hammer was used to break the hard rice cakes.

This method of breaking the rice cakes continues to this day, although the word waru 割る, to split or break, is not used because it is felt to bode evil. Instead, the Japanese use the more positive word hiraku 開く, to open, considered a more auspicious description.

A WORD ABOUT JAPANESE: The verb hiraku takes the ending “i,” hiraki, when used in its noun form, and the first letter changes to “b,” biraki, when joined to another word. For more on the intricacies of the Japanese language, see my article, “Why is Learning Japanese So Hard?”

Another kagami-biraki

Since ancient times, sake has been offered to the kami, or deity, when performing Shinto rituals. Afterward, the attendees and the priest drink sake together and pray for the fulfillment of their prayers. 

This sharing of sake is another type of kagami-biraki. The round wooden lids of sake casks, called kagami 鏡, are cracked open, hiraki 開き, with a wooden mallet and their contents shared. In this case, kagami takes on the meaning of harmony, and hiraki, of prosperity.

The practice of kagami-biraki by opening sake casks has since spread and has become part of many celebrations that mark new beginnings, such as weddings, the start of the new season for martial arts studios or sports teams, and the official opening of new businesses.

A similar custom, kura-biraki 蔵開き, opening store rooms, started in ages past when feudal lords and merchants would celebrate the opening of their storage rooms for the new year, and share sake and rice cakes with their subordinates and customers. 

Kagami-biraki is a celebratory event, whether referring to the cracking open of the New Year’s kagami mochi and being imbued with the spirit of the Toshi-kami, or cracking the lid of a 72-liter sake cask and having a grand time drinking it with your community.

https://www.gekkeikan.co.jp/enjoy/qa/sake/sake06.html, https://www.jalan.net/news/article/500808/, The Essence of Shinto,* by Motohisa Yamakage

*affiliate link

The post Kagami-Biraki, Opening the Rice Cakes for a Prosperous and Healthy Year first appeared on More Than Tokyo and is written by Diane Tincher.