Osaka: Painting an Eye on a Daruma Doll at Katsuo-ji Temple

Meet your guide and make your way to Katsuo-ji, a 1,300-year-old temple in the mountains above Osaka, known as the "Temple of Victory" and famous for the countless red daruma dolls covering its hillsides.

Explore the grounds with your guide, unhurried. Walk through the mountain gate, cross the vermilion bridge rising out of the mist, and visit the main hall. Learn about the shelves where returned daruma sit in rows facing the valley and why a temple came to be named for defeating an emperor.

If you'd like, add the full daruma eye-painting ritual, guided step by step. Choose the daruma you feel drawn to. On its base, write your purpose in life. On its back, write the goal you intend to reach 365 days from now.

Hold incense, call to mind everyone and everything connected to that goal, and let your gratitude settle into the smoke, then let that smoke soak into the daruma. Finally, sign your name on the right eye as a pledge to keep working, and paint it black.

Take it home with one eye. The second is painted only when the goal is reached. And if you ever return to Osaka, you can bring it back, report at the main hall, and leave it on the shelf alongside all the others.

After the temple, you can walk down through Meiji-no-Mori Minoh Quasi-National Park, following a trail along the river to the 33-meter Minoh Waterfall. The path runs through forest with the sound of water beside you the whole way, and it changes completely with the seasons: fresh green in spring, deep shade in summer, red and gold in autumn, and clear still air in winter.

What to bring

• Camera
• Comfortable shoes
• Weather-appropriate clothing

Know before you go

• The daruma eye-painting ritual is optional and involves additional cost for the daruma