Weekly News Digest
産経オンライン英会話 ニュースディスカッション教材
It's peak season at Arai Daruma, a small traditional shop in Hiratsuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture.
Beginning
with the shop owner, they are busy making daruma dolls for the new year of 2023.
The 150 year old company specializes in
handcrafting daruma papier-mâché Japanese dolls. These objects
are considered lucky because traditionally, when they are knocked over, they never fall down.
Each year starting from November, Arai makes new daruma dolls in the image of a zodiac animal for
the
following year. And the rabbit is the animal for 2023 in the Asian 12-year cyclical
calendar.
Arai's Four Generation, 150 Year Daruma Tradition
Seikan Arai, the 67-year-old owner, is the fourth generation operating the store. He hopes that 2023
will be
a year of leaps and bounds, in which, much like the jump of a rabbit, “we could overcome the
difficulties
and tragic situations such as the COVID-19
pandemic and the Ukrainian war.”
Due to global economic problems, the prices for essential raw materials such as the paper and varnish
used
in making the dolls have gone way up. But Arai says he will not raise the price of the dolls because
they are
"lucky charms."
In fact, he plans to produce 3,000 rabbit daruma dolls by February 2023. Have you prepared your wishes
for 2023?
神奈川県平塚市䛾「荒井だるま屋」では、来年の干支「卯」にちなんだウサギのだるま製作が最盛期を迎えている。
４代目の店主、荒井星冠（せいかん）さん（６７）は「新型コロナや戦争など悲惨なことはあるが、ピョンと飛び越えられるような飛躍の年になればいい」と話す。
物価高騰の影響で製作に必要な紙やニスなどといった原材料が値上がりしているが「縁起物だから値上げはしない」と打ち明ける。
ウサギのだるまは来年の２月までに３千個の製作を目指しているという。