🎎 CULTURE · Japan explained · 2026-08-03

Daruma dolls: why one eye is painted first, and what the other one means

Q: Which daruma eye do you paint first?

The right eye, at the moment you set your wish or goal. The left eye is painted only when the wish comes true, which is why you often see daruma with a single eye filled in.

七ころび八おきの人形

Same news, rewritten for 6 Japanese school grades — pick your level below. Furigana + translation included.

170 chars · ~3 min · 20 kanji

🎎 CULTURE 人形にんぎょう

Same sentence · 6 levels

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だるまは日本にほんでむかしからある人形にんぎょうです。

中なかにおもりがあり、何度なんどたおしても起おきあがります。

そこから「七ななころび八やおき」という言葉ことばが生うまれました。

買かうとき両方りょうほうの目めは白しろいです。

ねがいを決きめた人ひとが右みぎの目めを黒くろくぬります。

かなったら左ひだりの目めもぬり、神社じんじゃに返かえします。

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Translation

Daruma is a doll that has existed in Japan since long ago.

Because there is a weight inside, it gets back up no matter how many times you knock it over.

From that came the saying “fall down seven times, get up eight”.

When you buy one, both of its eyes are still white.

The person who has decided on a wish paints the right eye black.

When the wish comes true, they paint the left eye as well and return the doll to a shrine.

Which daruma eye do you paint first?

A daruma is a round red Japanese doll with thick eyebrows and a beard. A weight sits in its base, so however many times you knock it over it pulls itself upright again. That property gave Japan the saying "fall down seven times, get up eight" — and the doll became a symbol of not giving up after failure.

In shops both eyes are left blank white. The custom is that when you decide on a wish you ink in the right eye; when the wish comes true you ink in the left one. A year later the doll is taken to a shrine or temple and offered up with thanks, whether or not the second eye was ever filled in.

Takasaki City in Gunma Prefecture is the centre of daruma production in Japan, and its daruma market each January draws several hundred thousand visitors.

This story is written at six Japanese school-grade levels, so you can read it in real Japanese at whatever level you are now — with furigana over every kanji and an English translation beside it.

What do you do with a daruma after a year?

It is taken to a shrine or temple and offered up in gratitude, even if the second eye was never painted. Many people then start the next year with a new one.

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Why six school grades, and not N5–N1?

Because that is how Japanese children learn to read. Japan's Ministry of Education fixes exactly which character belongs to which grade — so "grade 3" is a boundary you can verify, not a feeling. Every article here is machine-checked: if a single character sits above its grade, it is not published.

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