On Monday, June 20th, I had the opportunity to participate in the Daruma Craft Workshop organized by the ICC.
To briefly introduce myself, I was born and raised in the U.S. by completely Japanese parents, which makes me full Japanese by blood, but I still identify as Japanese American. I am a study-abroad student from Arizona for the semester. Although I was raised in the U.S., I still had the chance to visit my relatives in Japan every summer pre-Covid. And since my mom was born and raised in Gunma, you would think that I would know about Takasaki darumas. Unfortunately, I did not know that Takasaki, Gunma, was famous for its daruma at all. Therefore, I was so glad to have this opportunity to learn about how Takasaki darumas are made and learn further about the culture my mom grew up in and the Japanese culture as a whole.
Daruma before painting the face (photo by author)
The event took place at the Waseda Campus at the Okuma Garden House. I had not had the chance to attend an event there yet, so I was excited to explore a new area on the campus.
To start off with, we were able to choose between several colors of daruma when we first signed up. I chose a pink daruma because it was a cute color. When we entered the room we were given our darumas and we sat down. The event started off with two craftsmen from Takasaki, introducing themselves and then answering questions about the reason they became craftsmen.
After their introduction, they showed a video and introduced us to the process and the several steps taken to make one Takasaki daruma. Then one of the craftsmen painted the mustache and eyebrows of the daruma to show us a model of what we were supposed to do. Then we were given some time to paint the mustaches and eyebrows onto our own darumas.
It was a very interesting and entertaining experience to say the least. I was very surprised by how long of a process it is to make one Takasaki daruma. I feel like it is a good stress reliever and a great way to take your mind of off academics and studying and just have fun.
Finally, I was able to become friends with the people at my table, so it is also a great way to make friends and learn more about the fascinating Japanese culture.
It was my second time attending an ICC event, and they were both great experiences!! Definitely I recommend to people who want to make friends or just have fun!!
