Mokugyo-daruma (Yamanashi)

Mokugyo-daruma is a tsukumogami (artifact entity) of an aged wooden fish-drum (mokugyo) whose face has come to bear the features of Bodhidharma (Daruma). The figure is shown with the fish-shaped body of the drum and the head of Daruma, joining the tradition of Buddhist-implement artifact entities. The mokugyo is a Zen and Pure Land Buddhist implement used to mark the rhythm of sutra chanting and the nenbutsu; the device is that one used for years took on the form of Daruma and became an entity. Toriyama Sekien's Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro (Tenmei 4, 1784), volume two, depicts "Mokugyo-daruma," with text noting the wry pairing of Daruma and the wooden fish. Later picture-books and essays gave the figure narrative form as a temple entity sounding sutra in the night. Sekien's book is a synthesis of artifact entities; Murakami Kenji's Nihon Yokai Daijiten (Kadokawa, 2005) and the International Research Center for Japanese Studies Yokai Folklore Database organize the tradition. Yamanashi has no distinct local layer.