Another very popular style of
Benihana Tiki Mug is the
Daruma mug, which is usually mistakenly called a
Buddha mug or, occasionally, an
angry troll.In actual fact,
Daruma is a depiction of
Bodhidharma, a fifth-century Buddhist monk, the father of
Zen Buddhism in China and Japan, who, it is said, meditated in a seated position non-stop for nine years and, as a consequence, his arms and legs and eyelids atrophied and fell off! Some versions of the story say that he dozed off while meditating, and cut off his own eyelids in anger, which then fell to the ground and sprouted into China's first green tea plants!
In either case, this is why the
Daruma Doll (and mug), is always pictured as just a wide-eyed disembodied head!
Daruma Dolls are very popular in Japan, where they are colorful "wishing" dolls, with blank eyes. The owner buys a doll and colors in one eye and makes a wish. Then, when the wish comes true, they color in the
other eye, too!
The
Daruma mug is commonly seen in three styles, this one, or an alternate
version that's found either with or without a rope headband, although that "alternate" version looks
so very different that, frankly, we think it's possible that it may depict some other Japanese deity entirely... or not.
