From Bodhidharma to Daruma: The Hidden Life of a Zen Patriarch

Abstract

The monk (Jap. Daruma) is usually presented as the founding patriarch of the Chan/Zen tradition and he has become a favorite theme of Zen ink-paintings. In early modern Japan, however, another image of became immensely popular: that of the tumbling dolls, which were initially used as charms to protect children against smallpox. thus became a protector of children and bringer of good luck, and his image was also fraught with sexual connotations (as attested by the widespread motif of Daruma with a courtesan) and embryological symbolism. This paper is an attempt to understand the evolution that led from the orthodox Zen patriarch to the smallpox deity and fortune of the Edo period. A clue is found in the Chan tradition according to which had been poisoned by his rivals. From the likelihood that the circumstances of his death led to the belief that he became a malevolent spirit that needed to be propitiated, the image develops into that of a crossroad deity, an epidemic deity, and a of fortune. Other legends and myths like those of Shotoku Taishi and Shinra Myojin may have contributed to this development. By removing from his habitual context (that of the Zen tradition) to place him in another context (that of popular religion and folklore), we are better able to understand his emergence as a fashionable god ( hayarigami ) in Edo culture. The heuristic interpretation suggested here also allows us to reconsider one widespread artistic motif, that of Bodhidharma crossing the Yangzi River on a reed.

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