Daruma Festival

The Daruma festival is hosted each year by the West Valley Chapter of the JACL (WVJACL), WVJACL Senior Club and WVJACL Next Generation. The main purpose of the Daruma festival is to bring people together. It’s great to see young and old working together to bring Japanese-American culture and entertainment to their friends, families and the community. The Daruma festival is also a major source of funds to support the activities of WVJACL, the senior club and Next Generation.

What is a Daruma?
Daruma – Darumas are the most familiar and delightful of all the folk toys of Japan. Although they come in different sizes with different faces they all had the same origin.

It is believed that in the sixth century a Buddhist saint know as Bodhidharma sat in meditation for nine years, loosing the use of his legs in the bargin. One legend tells us that on realizing he had fallen asleep one night after years of wakeful prayer, he cut off his unreliable eyelids and threw them to the ground where they sprang up as the world’s first tea plants. Scholars and saints from that time on had tea to keep them awake.

That stoic Bodhidharma of ancient India generated a whole legion of cheer tumbling dolls that came to be known in old Japan as Daruma. Most often you will see the red Daruma or Toyooka Daruma with his black mustache and blank white eyes. Heavily weighted at the base, he rights himself quickly when toppled over,suggesting dauntless courage and final success. When you buy one of these Daruma, if you have recently experienced good fortune, you are obliged to paint in one of his pupils, promising him the remaining one when he as granted you another stroke of luck. Buying a slightly larger Daruma each year can ease your path through life.

When is our next festival?

The next Daruma Festival will be held on Saturday, August 19, 2006.   For more information see our 2006 Daruma Flyer.

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