Takasaki Daruma Temple

Shorinzan Darumaji is where the Takasaki daruma began: in the late eighteenth century, after crop failures, the temple's priest is said to have given local farmers a design for a papier-mache doll of Bodhidharma to make and sell through the winter, and the district became the centre of production - Takasaki still makes something like eighty percent of Japan's daruma. The dolls are round, weighted so they right themselves when pushed over, and sold with both eyes blank; you paint in one when you set a goal and the other when you reach it. At the temple, shelves and racks hold thousands of returned dolls with both eyes filled, brought back at year's end and burned in a ceremony in January, when a large market fills the grounds. The main hall's ceiling carries painted panels, and the temple was where a German architect lived in the 1930s while writing about Japanese building.

What to look for

• Racks of returned dolls - thousands with both eyes filled, awaiting the January burning.
• The origin story - a design given to farmers after crop failures in the eighteenth century.
• The two eyes - one painted at the setting of a goal, one at its completion.
• The New Year market - the grounds filled with stalls and the burning ceremony.

When to go

The first week of January for the market and burning. Two hours.

Before you go

Outside the January market the temple is quiet with little activity. It is a fair walk from the nearest small station and buses are infrequent. English explanation is minimal. Market days are extremely crowded.

Nearby

Takasaki city is east; Kusatsu Onsen is north-west.