Dorodango is a traditional pastime for Japanese schoolchildren, and now it has evolved into an art form. Dorodango is a shiny ball made of mud and dirt and the name ‘hikaru dodorango’ literally translates to ‘shiny dumpling’. These polished spheres are amusing people online as they look like one of the most satisfying things ever.
The hand-rolling of this soil-based mixture can be relaxing and comfortable to do. Dorodango is not without its difficulties and needs a high degree of skill, patience and concentration. Given the fragility and inclination of the dorodango to break, the perfectly formed ball is elusive. It can also be a challenging process to achieve the perfect shine.
The rolled mud ball is sun-dried for a few days and then coated several times with the soil mixture until it has the perfect form. Dorodangos need not be flawless in the early stages. Some practitioners use a glass jar with an opening slightly smaller in size than the dried ball diameter, which helps the dorodango sit comfortably. The ball is rolling, rubbing it gently against the jar’s mouth until it turns smoothly.
After polishing, the most drastic changes happen. To polish the ball, olive oil is spread over the surface, then the ball is pressed against the opening of a small container, then rotated, which exposes the shine.
More on Japanese Design
-
The Timeless Beauty of Traditional Japanese Furniture
Traditional Japanese Furniture Traditional Japanese furniture is known for being simple and useful. It isRead More →
-
Shoji Hamada (1894 – 1978) Japanese Potter
Shoji Hamada, along with Bernard Leach, was one of the key figures in the development of studio pottery in the 20th century. His influence both in England and the US as well as in his native Japan cannot be underestimated. Read More →
-
Ikko Tanaka (1930 -2002) 🇯🇵 Graphic Design blend of East and West
Ikko Tanaka was a Leading Graphic Designer in Japan. He had an enormous impact on the post-war visual culture in Japan.Read More →
-
RIP – Issey Miyake, the Japanese fashion designer, dies 84.
Issey Miyake died on August 5, 2022, in a Tokyo hospital of liver cancer. He founded the Miyake Design Studio in 1970.Read More →
-
Masakazu Kobayashi (b.1944) Japanese textile designer
Masakazu Kobayashi studied at the University of Arts, Kyoto, Japan. He manifested traditional textile techniques and aesthetics in his work. Between 1966 and 1975, he worked as a textile designer for Kawashima. His 1982 fabric evoked komon, a textile dyeing technique which uses paper patterns with small motifs.Read More →
-
Japan Advertising Artists Club pioneer of Japanese Graphic Design
In the 1960s, the JAAC’s philosophy came under fire for being overly reliant on exhibitions as a platform for innovative ideas. Furthermore, during the turbulent 1960s, a perceived emphasis on aesthetics at the expense of social significance, combined with allegations of elitism, led to the organisation’s disbandment in 1970.Read More →
-
Yoshitomo Nara (b.1959) Japanese Artist and Designer
Nara grew up in Aomori Prefecture, Japan, about 300 miles north of the Tochigi Prefecture. His exposure to Western music on the American military radio station Far East Network in Honshu influenced his artistic imagination early. Later, he would provide cover art for bands including Shonen Knife, R.E.M., and Bloodthirsty Butchers.Read More →
-
Shiro Kuramata (1934 – 1991) Japanese interior designer
He has created almost 300 stores and restaurants since 1965. Despite designing furniture for Aoshima and Ishimaru, he is best known for his 1970 Furniture in Irregular Forms collection for Fijiko. Cappellini International Interiors’ 1970 wavy 18-drawer chests garnered him accolades while exhibiting his odd and surreal sense of humour.Read More →
-
Poster for Nikon (1957) by Yusaku Kamekura
Yusaku Kamekura’s poster emphasises the brilliance and clarity attained with the Nikon lens and the technical perfection of his client’s camera by using brilliant optical patterns and powerful, white letter-forms against an intensely dark background. Read More →
-
Junichi Arai (1932 – 2017) Japanese textile designer and producer
Junichi Arai (1932 – 2017) was a Japanese textile designer and producer born in Kiryu, Gunma. As the sixth generation of a mill-owning family, Arai grew up with fabrics being woven for obis and kimonos. He held traditional weaving methods in high regard and the skills that only the human hand can have in the…
-
Soichiro Sasakura (b.1949) Japanese Glassware Designer
He worked for Sasaki Glass, for which he designed the 1988 San Marino glassware range.Read More →
-
Fujina – Japanese Folk Pottery
Fujina pottery is made at Matsue, Shimane. 19th-century products include bluish-green tea bowls and white, yellow, or bluish-green domestic pottery. Later urban work promotes folk art.Read More →
-
Arata Isozaki (b. 1931) is a Japanese architect, urban designer
Arata Isozaki is a Japanese architect, urban designer, and theorist from Ōita. He was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in 1986 and the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2019.Read More →
-
Japanese Flower Arranging
The arrangements of flowers offer far more than a pattern employing flowers and foliage neatly distributed in an appropriate container. Not only is it a form of relaxation, but flower arrangement reawakens an awareness of nature upon which a philosophy – that of restraint and simplicity — is based.Read More →
-
Masakichi Awashima (1914 – 1979) Japanese Glassware Designer
After studying design at the Japan Art School in Tokyo, Awashima worked for artisan Kozo Kagami, who had studied Western glass methods in Germany from 1935 to 1946. Read More →
-
Hiroshi Awatsuji (1929 – 1995) Japanese Textile Designer
Hiroshi Awatsuji (1929- 1995) was a Japanese textile and graphic designer: born in Kyoto. He was considered the first Japanese textile designer to be recognised for contemporary design rather than for traditional art and craft. The main characteristic of his work was over sized motifs.Read More →
-
Ukiyo-e, Pictures of the floating world
Ukiyo-e, translated as “pictures of the floating world,” has captured wisps of the natural beauty that one sees every day. These prints are a record of 18th and 19th-century life in Japan and had a profound effect on the great Western artists of the time.Read More →
-
Hiroshi Yamano – Exquisite Japanese Glass Designs
Kiroshi Yamano is a Japanese Glass Designer. He studied at the Tokyo Glass Crafts Institute to 1984 and Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York, to 1989. Read More →
-
Introducing Kazuhide Takahama (b.1930) Japanese Designer
At the X Milan Triennale exhibition in 1954, he met the furniture manufacturer, Dino Gavina, who subsequently invited Takahama to work for him in Italy. Takahama’s first design for Gavina was the geometrically severe Naeko sofa-bed (1957). Read More →
-
Toshiyuki Kita (b.1942) Japanese Furniture and Interior Designer
He set up his own design office in Osaka in 1964; in 1969, he began designing furniture for Italian and Japanese firms; he collaborated with Silvio Coppola, Giotto Stoppino, and Bepi Fiori for Bernini. He is best known for the 1980 Wink articulated armchair produced by Cassina, which took four years to design; Read More…
You may also be interested in
Japanese Flower Arranging – Encyclopedia of Design
The arrangements of flowers offer far more than a pattern employing flowers and foliage neatly distributed in an appropriate container. Not only is it a form of relaxation, but flower arrangement reawakens an awareness of nature upon which a philosophy – that of restraint and simplicity – is based.
Adachi Museum Gardens – Encyclopedia of Design
The gardens vary in appearance every day. In fact, we might never see each beautiful moment again, and this is why the whole garden is always full of beauty. The founder Adachi Zenko, with the belief of “the garden is also a picture”, devoted himself to gardening until he died at the age of 91.
Utsuwa Katachi: Japanese Ceramics And Forms
Utsuwa Katachi: Japanese Ceramics And Forms [Tomoo Shoken] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Utsuwa Katachi: Japanese Ceramics And Forms