Sarubobo Doll

Have you ever seen this figure? This is called "Sarubobo". Saru means "monkey" and bobo means "baby" in Hida area, which is surrounded by steep mountains located in the northern part of Gifu Prefecture.

  Sarubobo is a red human-shaped doll with  no facial feature in a black hood. It is a typical souvenior of Hida area. In the past , sarubobos are made by grandmothers for their grandchildren as dolls, and for their daughters as a charm for good marriage, good children and to ensure a well-rounded couple, by using left-over clothes.

Sarubobo may be a famous Japanese figure appeared in some guidebook about Japan. I remember a nice American woman I met in Kyoto a few years ago. When I finished showing her around some famous tourist spots,  she said to me, "I've wanted to buy a red and black doll with a round face. Where can I buy one?" I didn't know what she meant. After a while I realized she was talking of "Sarubobo." She had wanted to get one as a charm for her sister. We visited and visited many shops and department stores in Kyoto but we couldnt't find one. I got a call to some tourist organization asking where to buy one and found that we can buy these dolls mainly in the typical area of Hida such as Takayama, not in Kyoto.
 But I think today she can get one using shopping services on the Internet.

Yesterday I bought this doll during my trip, but you can make it by yourself.  This website will help you. http://mairuru.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-to-make-sarubobo-plush.html

Yokai

Yokai are a class of supernatural creatures in Japanese folklore. They are things in nature transforming themselves into something supernatural.

Some of those creatures were friendly, mischievous, others rather dangerous. Some possess animal features such as Kappa which is similar to a turtle. Other times they can appear as human.

There are also yokai based on household items. In the past the Japanese believed that every inanimate object had its own spirit and would cause bad things to happen to anyone who didn't take good care of it.Stories about yokai sometimes served as a warning to people to be more respectful to the things they use.

Japanese people have always had a certain fear of nature, but they have also felt an affinity with it. Scary but at the same time oddly likable, yokai perhaps embody the Japanese way of seeing the world.

Even today yokai are living in our lives. "GeGeGe no Kitaro" is a famous manga series created by Mizuki Shigeru. It is about the yokai world. My favorite character is "Nezumi-Otoko".