A round red doll teaches the biggest lesson: get back up, every time.
In Japan there is a round red doll called Daruma, with a heavy bottom so that however you push him, he always rocks back upright. He teaches a famous saying: “Fall down seven times, stand up eight.”
When you make a wish, you colour in one of his blank eyes; when the wish comes true, you colour the other. Daruma reminds us to keep trying — and to keep our promises.
The Daruma doll is modelled on Bodhidharma, the monk credited with bringing Zen Buddhism from India to China, who legend says meditated so long facing a wall that his limbs withered away — which is why Daruma dolls are round and limbless, weighted at the base so they always roll back upright (they’re known in Japan as okiagari-koboshi, “self-righting toys”).
Every January, the city of Takasaki holds one of Japan’s largest Daruma markets, where people buy a fresh doll, paint in the left eye while making a goal or wish, and paint the right eye only once it comes true — often burning the old doll in a New Year bonfire and starting again with a new one.