MEET IT IN 30 SECONDS
だるま落とし（だるまおとし）
Daruma otoshi is a wooden stacking toy. A mallet knocks out the lower pieces from the side while the Daruma-shaped head stays on top. A quick strike helps keep the upper stack from following the departing piece.
Daruma otoshi places a Daruma-shaped head on a stack of cylindrical wooden pieces, with a small mallet beside it. The lower pieces are removed one at a time while the head is kept. Sets can vary in their colours and number of sections.
Build the stack, then strike a lower piece quickly from the side. Continue with the pieces that remain. Success means knocking out the lower sections without toppling the upper stack, until the Daruma head remains.
The mallet accelerates the piece it strikes. The pieces above have inertia: they tend to keep their previous state of motion. During a quick strike, they do not move far sideways with the departing piece and can settle near the original vertical line.
The Science Koshien problem notes that friction actually moves the upper pieces a little. A shorter contact time gives that friction less time to change their motion. The trick limits sideways movement; it does not suspend the stack or cancel gravity.
Edo-Tokyo Museum records a set from the Mizuno family as collection 96007095. It dates the toy to Shōwa30–39 (1955–64), with dimensions of 4.5 × 13.0 cm. These describe a particular surviving set, rather than establishing when the game was invented.
Hiratsuka City Museum’s 1995 introduction to the Honma Collection defines kiji toys as assemblies of round wooden components turned on a lathe, listing daruma otoshi among them. Related woodworking also supplies spinning tops and dolls, with the arrangement of parts determining how a toy works.
The stacked sections and sideways removal distinguish daruma otoshi. Hiratsuka’s collection also includes other turned-wood Daruma objects. A painted Daruma face alone does not identify the stacking game.
Strike a lower piece sideways while keeping the upper stack and, eventually, the head.
It shortens frictional contact, limiting movement of the pieces above.
No. Friction can move it sideways a little.
No. It dates the particular set numbered 96007095.
Its stacked pieces and sideways mallet strikes that remove one section at a time.