Top Story: 14. April 2008

The Amazing World of Dorodango

Have you ever heard of dorodango?

Dorodango is a mud ball. It is an artifact simply made of soil. Despite the fact that it contains no paint or lacquer or chemical of any kind, it can be made to shine like a billiard ball and it can have a texture reminding a precisious jewel or jade. Some dorodango can also have amazing perfection what comes to their geometric shape.

Some dorodango has a texture resembling elephant's skin, while another might resemble a texture of a pine tree. There are shiny black dorodango and pure white marmor-like balls that look exactly like a snooker balls.

The basic process of making dorodango is quite simple. You take mud, and roll it in your hands, making sure it's firm and somehow resemble a sphere. And you add dust and keep rolling it. Then, you add more fine sand and keep rolling and rolling it in your hands. Then you can add even more fine sand, which you can filter through a fine mesh, and keep rolling and rolling. Then you can wrap it into a minigrip bag or plastic wrap, and let the moisture go towards the surface from the core. Next day, just continue adding sand and rolling it in your hands.

This process of creating the layers around the moist core, can take days or weeks or months.

While you work with dorodango, you should try to banish unnecessary thoughts, just meditate, appreciating the mother earth for giving us such wonderful element to work with.

As you keep rolling the ball in your hands, the small particles of sand will eventually find their way into the small cracks the surface, making the surface more smooth. Throughout the process, the dorodango will get several layers and if you add more fine sand, the layers will eventually become more hard.

The shinyness will come naturally, from the friction of your hands as well as the tiny particles of dust. More advanced hobbyists use micrometer meshes to filter only the smallest particles of dust.

Apparently the real challenge in dorodango is to achieve a perfect sphere, but that's not the only trickly part.

What actually keeps the ball from falling apart? Afterall, it's just earth and there is no fixative whatsoever.

The secret is moisture. Moisture is the key to make a stable and beautiful dorodango. If you get the moisture wrong, too much or too little of it, next day you might find your shiny dorodango collapsed. This appears to be a common problem.

It is the moisture in the core, that keeps dorodango from falling apart. Because moisture, dorodango cannot be stored in a dry place. If the water runs out, it will fall apart. Preferably the water included should be sweet water, not water from a sea.

Dorodango is said to be a core or fundamental of Japanese aesthetic culture. Dorodango has beautiful symbolism, indeed. Many Japanese feel it nostalgic and a reminder of their childhood summers.

Adult people in modern Japan are rarely touching soil. And children nowadays will rather play with their TV game consoles than let their hands to become dirty.

But when a popular concept of ROHAS (slow life) hit the media in Japan in the beginning of 2000, dorodango boom came to Japan, and even adults started to make the mud balls. Now, dorodango has made it's way to abroad also, and there are websites like: www.dorodango.com . (Gallery is included.)

Dorodango is a small universe within itself. It can be said to be a very symbol of earth - as water is crucial to planet earth it is for dorodango. It can be a way for human being to return to our natural inhabitant.

Or, it can simply be a simple excuse to get some fresh air.

Which ever your reason is, practising dorodango is Japanese culture. To make perfect beauty from something so simple as soil from earth.

This is English site about dorodango.

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