Black Shadow Daruma 'Kagemi'

Black daruma doll in glossy enamel with gold eyes and red characters for luck

Black, glossy, with gold eyes and red writing. This daruma is a ceramic doll in a black enamel that shines like lacquer, with the face painted in the traditional black-and-white strokes, a red mouth, both eyes filled in black with gold rings, gold streaks at the shoulders, and the two characters for opening luck brushed in red inside a gold circle on the belly, with gold characters down the sides. Black is the daruma for warding off, and this is the smartest one in the collection.

It is the daruma for a person who wears black and wants the doll to match.

The name, Kagemi, is the shadow, the dark form, and the black daruma is the one that stands in front of bad luck.

The doll is ceramic with a glossy enamel finish, cast hollow with a weighted base, the face painted in the crane-and-tortoise strokes of the Takasaki tradition, the body carrying the two characters for opening luck in a circle and a column of smaller characters at each side, with gold streaks at the shoulders.

The daruma is the monk who sat facing a wall for nine years, and the doll is his body with no limbs and a weighted base, so it rights itself when knocked over: seven times down, eight times up. You paint one eye when you set a goal and the other when you reach it.

Put it where you will see it every day, on a desk, a shelf or a windowsill, facing into the room, and paint the left eye when you set the goal. Knock it over once to see it stand up.

The red on black is the detail: the characters on the belly are the only red on the doll apart from the mouth, inside a gold ring, and they read like a seal on a lacquer box. The gold rings round the eyes catch the light.

Every daruma in the collection is photographed at the same scale, so the pages compare: the single dolls are about the height of a hand, the stacked box taller.

Dust with a soft cloth; wipe with a damp one if it needs it. Paint the eyes with a brush and black ink or a marker. It is ceramic and it breaks, so keep it off the edge of the shelf.

From across a room it is a black egg with a white face. From close the belly shows its red seal, the eyes their gold, and the enamel its depth. It is the daruma for a hall table and a person who wants the door guarded.