If you've spent any time at all in Japan, or even in a Japanese restaurant, chances are you're familiar with those roly-poly paper-maché dolls known as daruma.
Seen one daruma, seen 'em all -- or so I thought until Hiroko and I stumbled across these insanely customized specimens. They were on sale in the shopping arcade behind Jindai-ji temple in Mitaka on New Year's Day. From left to right, they're an Oni (demon) daruma, a Jack O' daruma, and a kappa (water goblin) daruma. (Click to see 'em stoopid huge.)
It turns out that they were handcrafted by Shin Tsuzuki, a former assistant to manga-ka Suihō Tagawa, creator of the prewar classic Norakuro. Tsuzuki takes regular daruma, sands the features down, adds more paper-maché, and repaints them to create one-of-a-kind customs.
We grabbed the three above, but they were only the tip of the iceberg -- Tsuzuki was on a daruma-customizing bender last year. Check out the yuki-daruma, the sea lion-daruma, the alien-daruma, and my personal favorite, the pixelated mosaic-daruma, apparently the patron saint of Japanese porn companies. Gotta get 'em all!
That mosaic or pixelated daruma is awesome. If he ever does a skull one . . .
Posted by: cae | January 03, 2008 at 01:14 AM
Actually... He did. The photo didn't turn out for some reason. I can keep an eye peeled next time I go.
Posted by: Matt | January 03, 2008 at 06:24 AM
Dokuro Daruma Go!
Posted by: Corey | January 03, 2008 at 08:28 AM
Isn't Mitaka right next to Kichijoji? I'll make Alt-san take us there (I'd like the mosaic one, myself) and bring one back for you, Corey.
Posted by: hillsy | January 04, 2008 at 02:09 AM
Yay!
Posted by: cae | January 06, 2008 at 06:00 PM