Table of contents |
2 The origin of Sarubobo 3 The reason why Sarubobo has no face 4 Modern Sarubobo |
What is Sarubobo
Sarubobo is doll's name of special product in Hida Takayama. Sarubobo is a kind of charm. Grandmothers make sarubobos for grandchildren as dolls, and for daughters for good marriage, good child, and being a well-rounded couple.
The origin of Sarubobo
Sarubobo means a baby monkey. In Japanese, monkey is called "Saru", and another way of saying is "En". There are some reasons why a baby's name of monkey was used. Sarubobo is included three wishes. The wishes are ...
In Japanese, leave means "Saru", so bad things will "Saru"
In Japanese, a happy home is Kanai "En"man, a good match is Ryo-"En"
Monkey's childbirth is easy.
These three reasons are the origin of Sarubobo. Sarubobo's face is red, a face of monkey's baby is red, too. So we call this doll Sarubobo
The reason why Sarubobo has no face
The reasons aren't sure, but some reasons exist. Originally, Sarubobo was made of
the left over cloth from mother to her children. So Sarubobo wasn't needed to be a perfect likeness. This is one reason.
The other reason is that we can imagine Sarubobo's face freely. When we are sad, Sarubobo looks like sad. When we are happy, Sarubobo looks like happy, too.