This story is based on "Yuko-chan and the Daruma Doll by Sunny Seki, www.Tuttlepublishing.com, 2012. Please be sure to provide this link in the class blog in addition to any Amazon listing of the book.
This story is best told with pictures of volcanos spewing ash and smoke and a Daruma Doll.
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This story is from Japan. It is about the most wonderful little girl who lived there a long time ago. Have you seen where Japan is on the globe? It is a set of small islands. Such islands usually have volcanoes and they have a lot of earth quakes.
This little girl's name was Yuko-chan. She did not have parents so she lived in a temple along with some monks. One monk called Osho-san took care of her. Her eyes did not work properly, she would not see. She had a little guide-dog called Shiba to take here where ever she needed to go, so she was fine.
Once there was a big volcano on the island. The smoke and ash was everywhere! Everybody got so scared. All the monks sat down and started praying to God for help. While they were praying, there was a strong breeze and all the lamps went out and it was dark. All the monks could not read their books and had to stop praying. But Yuko-chan continued to pray! She did not have eyes, remember so she had learnt to say the prayers without reading! Wasnt she lucky?!
The plants died because there was no sunshine and there was ash everywhere. People had no food and were sad. Osho-san said "In times of trouble, we have to listen to our teacher Daruma-san". Daruma-san was an old teacher. He had come all the way from India (Tamil nadu) and performed meditation for nine years in a cave. His arms and legs had become numb but he continued to teach people. He also said, "If you fall seven times, you must pick yourself up eight times. You must have faith that you can reach your goal. No getting upset if you fail!"
One night, Yuko-chan heard a noise and woke up. A thief had come into the temple and was stealing the donation-box. Have you seen a donation box in the temple? That is where people put money for the temple. Yuko-san called out loudly "Dont move, or I will release my dog!". The man said "Please dont hurt me, my father is sick. I need money to get him medicine". Yuko-san felt sorry for him and whispered "Okay. But run away before Osho-san wakes up and catches you". Osho-san came out just then and saw the thief run away with the money. Osho-san shook his head sadly. He said "Poor man! He lost all his crops because of the volcano. I wish we could give him more"
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After that day Osho-san would go into the village and collect extra food and clothing to give to people in need. Yuko-san went with him. One day she was walking in the village when she heard a voice. "Little girl - thank you for letting me take the money. My father is better now". Who do you think it was? The thief! His name was Kenta. Yuko-san was happy. She did not tell anyone that Kenta was a thief.
It became winter. Yuko-chan and Osho-san continued to help the people in the village. Yuko-chan would carry a tea-gourd with tea in it and they would walk and walk and walk everywhere. One day Yuko-chan and Shiba went by themselves. It snowed so much. Shiba was showing Yuko-chan the way, but he slipped and dragged Yuko-chan down down down the cliff. Poor Yuko-chan she rolled and rolled and rolled and plunk!, finally landed at the bottom of the cliff in a big hole in the snow drift. She called out "Help". Nobody came. She called again. There was no response. What is she to do?! She was thirsty and felt around her for her tea gourd. Ha- it was still there in her back pack. She took it out, drank the tea and started playing with the gourd. She would push it down, it would roll a little but come up straight again. And Again and Again. Yuko-chan thought "This is just like Daruma-san said. If you fall down, you should get up". Ha - this Daruma -tea-gourd is teaching me a lesson". OK, I will try to get out this big hole in the snow. So she started calling again "Help! Help!". Suddenly, she heard a voice, "Little girl, have you fallen down? I will help you". It was Kenta. He had heard her!
He ran to the village and got some ropes and a lot of people came and threw them down to Yuko-chan and pulled her and Shiba up. Safe at last!
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Yuko-chan thought, "The Daruma-tea-gourd taught me a lesson never to give up. Our village people are so sad because of the volcano. Maybe the tea gourd can teach them too!" So she took some reeds and made it into a doll that looked like her tea gourd. Then she put clay all over it and painted it. She called it the Daruma Doll and gave it to people to tell them never to give up! "Be like the Daruma doll. Have faith and if you fall down, stand up again. Never give up". She taught people how to make the doll and people started making Daruma dolls themselves! And they would always say, "I should be like my Daruma Doll. I must never give up - I should always have faith and pick myself up if I fall down".
Next spring, the volcano ash was all gone and the fields were full of rice seedlings again. So people knew that their troubles were over. They would have plenty of food again. Yuko-chan was so happy to walk near the village again and smell the flowers! Osho-san saw that there was just a little puff of smoke coming from the volcano now. There was no ash, and he was happy. He said, "The puff of smoke looks like a Daruma doll". "The ash made us sad. But because of the volcano we all got the Daruma Doll which will teach us to always have faith. Even if we fall down, we should have faith and always get up".
