These are the Daruma dolls – the traditional hollow emblems of Japanese mysticism . Apparently they are not nearly a scary as they appear on first sight.

A few of hours northwest of Tokyo, in the city of Takasaki, is a temple called Syorinzan Darumaji. It is here, several hundred years ago, that the first Daruma dolls were made. 

Daruma dolls saved the people of Takasaki from the famine but, in some sense, they did bring the region good luck. It started the craze of the dolls which still continues today – and the most popular ones are those made by the locals around the Daruma temple.

These days more than a hundred local farm families make almost two million of the dolls each year!