“Snow man built by a sister & brother”, c. 1910.

“In the northern and western coast provinces, where the snow falls to the depth of many feet and remains long on the ground, it forms the material of the children’s playthings, and the theatre of many of their sports … [T]hey make many kinds of images and imitations of what they see and know.

“In America the boy’s snow-man is a Paddy with a damaged hat, clay pipe in mouth, and the shillelah in his hand. In Japan, the snow-man is an image of Daruma. Daruma was one of the followers of Shaka (Buddha) who, by long meditation in a squatting position, lost his legs from paralysis and sheer decay.

“The images of Daruma are found by the hundreds in toy-shops. tobacconists signs, and as the snow-men of the boys.”

– Child-life in Japan, by M. Chaplin Ayrton, edited by William Elliot Griffis, 1909