Legend has it that master Daruma lost his arms and legs from being so many years hiding in a cave, meditating and not using them.
The typical colors are red, yellow, green and white. The doll has a face with a mustache and beard but his eyes are white at all. The daruma's eyes are used as a reminder and motivation to accomplish goals or big tasks. The owner of the doll paints a round pupil (usually of the right eye) when setting his goal; when this has been accomplished, the other eye is painted. A daruma with a single pupil is usually placed where it is visible, as a constant reminder of the work that must be done to achieve the objective.2
Normally the Daruma doll is male, although there is a Daruma doll, known as Ehime Daruma (Princess Daruma).
Having an ovoid shape and low center of gravity, some of them return to their vertical position when pushed aside, like a rattle. This symbolically represents optimism, persistence and determination.
These dolls are based on the Okiagari-koboshi (起 き 上 が り 小 法師), a traditional taffy. A song of the seventeenth century speaks of these characteristics:
Hi ni! Fu Ni!
They found Daruma ga
Akai zukin kaburi sunmaita!
One time two times!
Always the red hood Daruma
he keeps his head up3