Nishiarai Daishi Daruma-Burning Ceremony

Watch as thousands of daruma go up in flames. This is one of the most dramatic daruma-burning rituals in all of Tokyo.

What are daruma?

Daruma are round Japanese dolls that represent the founder of Zen Buddhism, Bodhidharma. Every year, people purchase dolls and fill in the pupil of one of their eyes with black and make a wish. When that wish comes true, they fill in the other side. Once the daruma have completed their purpose, many take their dolls to shrines at the beginning of the year to set them alight.

You can even throw your daruma on the pyre if they haven’t fulfilled your wish — that’ll show them — but you still need to fill in the eyes.

What happens?

Held every year in early February, Daruma Kuyo at Nishiarai Daishi is a ritual burning ceremony for daruma dolls that have done their job.

During the ceremony, people bring their old daruma to the temple, where monks chant sutras as the dolls are burned on a large outdoor pyre. The flames can climb several meters high. The belief is that the fire purifies the daruma, releasing the wishes they carried and clearing the way for new ones.