Teru-Teru Bōzu

A small, ghost-like doll that is traditionally used by Japanese people to prevent rain. The name literally means "shiny shiny Buddhist monk" or alternatively "bright bright Buddhist monk" and it was originally designed to somewhat look like one - it very vaguely resembles a bald man. Children traditionally hung these in a window frame when they wanted the next day to have good weather.

They can also can be hung upside down if you want it to rain tomorrow. They date from the Edo period (1603-1868), when they first appeared in urban areas. They are still a fairly common sight in Japan today, especially in the homes of young children. Originally a simple chant of "Fine-weather priest, please let the weather be good tomorrow" has since evolved into a much longer and more elaborate Nursery Rhyme:

Teru-teru-bōzu, teru bōzu
Ashita tenki ni shite o-kure
Itsuka no yume no sora no yō ni
Haretara kin no suzu ageyo

(Teru-teru-bozu, teru bozu
Do make tomorrow a sunny day
Like the sky in a dream sometime
If it's sunny I'll give you a golden bell)

Teru-teru-bōzu, teru bōzu
Ashita tenki ni shite o-kure
Watashi no negai wo kiita nara
Amai o-sake wo tanto nomasho

(Teru-teru-bozu, teru bozu
Do make tomorrow a sunny day
If you make my wish come true
We'll drink lots of sweet rice wine)

Teru-teru-bōzu, teru bōzu
Ashita tenki ni shite o-kure
Sorete mo kumotte naitetara
Sonata no kubi wo chon to kiru zo

(Teru-teru-bozu, teru bozu
Do make tomorrow a sunny day
But if the clouds are crying
Then I shall snip your head off)

The Henohenomoheji face is sometimes used on teru teru bozu.

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Examples:

Advertising

• In one of the many wacky Japanese adverts Jackie Chan has appeared in he was dressed as a Teru Teru Bozu, suspended from a skyscraper singing the song.

Anime & Manga

• In Aphorism, the kids hang the dolls upside down to make it rain, since rain prevents the Blight from occuring.
• In Yotsuba&!, there is one chapter where Yotsuba makes many of these (including one huge one) to prevent rain, so that she can go to the beach the next day.
• ChocoMimi: Mimi makes an upside-down one because she wants it to rain. There are also a few other chapters where the characters make Teru Teru Bozu.
• Plays a scarier-than-usual role in a 20th Century Boys flashback.
• A girl in Urusei Yatsura is afraid of these dolls, and of Cherry, who vaguely resembles one.
• In Hidamari Sketch, Miyako suggests making one during the rainy season so that Yuno can finally air out her winter futon and put it away, and then proceeds to make one out of the futon.
  • Another time, she realizes she's just washed the stray cat's face, so she hangs a few.
  • Teru teru bouzu show up as a pattern on Yuno's chroma key curtains in one episode.
• In one episode of Sgt. Frog, Fuyuki makes a line of upside down ones to make it rain on Sports Day. Not only does this not work, the next day's forecast is for a 0% chance of rain.
  • A chapter of the manga had Fuyuki and Natsumi making teru teru bozu dolls to stop a rainstorm. Unbeknownst to them, the Keronians start making their own version of the dolls in order to make it keep raining, since they thrive in wet, humid weather.
• Squid Girl:
  • Takeru and Ika Musume make these during a storm in one episode. (It doesn't work.)
  • Ika Musume's are drawn with such horrifying faces that when Takeru wakes up to see one in his bedroom, it causes "a very localized downpour"
  • She draws them with such grotesque faces because she keeps focusing on the fact that they get strung up by the neck after they're finished.
  • She also tries to act as one herself to stop a rainstorm, and when it doesn't work she comes close to going all the way and hanging herself by her tentacles.
• In Case Closed, Ran and Kazuha make teru teru bozu in an attempt to chase away the rain, but Heiji sabotages their effort by turning them around so they faced inward.
• In Minami-ke, Kana makes one of these out of her little sister Chiaki so that she'll be able to go to the beach. When it works (rather to everyone's surprise), Chiaki chastises the others for praying to her with "Don't worship me!".
• In Toradora!, Ryuuji is seen hanging a home-made one out of cloth.
• In Kinnikuman Nisei, the character known in English as "Dialbolic" is called "Tel Tel Boy" (Teru Teru Boi) in the original Japanese. This foreshadows the fact that his weakness is water and he's defeated when it starts to rain.
• In Change 123, in the flashback of the morning that Motoko's mother died, the 5-years old Motoko checks out the weather after getting up, and we see her Teru Teru Bozu. Although seemingly unimportant, this scene actually discretely points out to Motoko's superstition, and her superstition will play a major role in the creation of her first Split Personality.
• One episode of the Imagin Anime had Ryuutaro making a room full of these to ensure good weather for a picnic. When it doesn't look like that will work, he is given a gigantic bear shaped one.
• In Azumanga Daioh, Chiyo says she'll make these for luck for Sports Day, but Osaka tries to predict weather with her shoe, instead, so we don't find out if she followed through. (It was sunny, though.)
  • In the manga, they're more into wanting it to rain on Sports Day for the second year. After a series of convoluted leaps of logic, they figure that hanging Chiyo out the window would have the same effect, so hanging her upside-down by her ankles would logically bring bad weather. They do so. It's still clear the next day.
• In Fairy Tail, Juvia before her Heel–Face Turn had one on her dress because of her being Blessed with Suck constantly raining around her. In some flashback, her younger self is seen making some more so the rain would go away and the local kids would play with her. It then pans out and you can see a pile of them behind her as she breaks into tears and starts begging them to work... It's a real Tear Jerker if you've ever been bullied or excluded.
• Kanamemo has the girls at the newspaper delivery office take to making a whole bunch of Teru Teru Bozu to ward off an incoming typhoon. They make the last one out of a large raincoat and rope...which freaks out a drunk passerby who, seeing only its silhouette at night, mistakes it for a person hanging himself. Or rather, the ghost of a person who hung himself.
• In Tamayura: Hitotose, in the Festival Episode, Fuu, Norie and Maon go to visit Kaoru to check why she wasn't able to meet with them. They find her tying up a rather large Teru Teru Bozu with an (inexplicably) scary face made by Kaoru's sister. Then all four of them decide to make each her own Teru Teru Bozu and, of course, each of them gives it her own face and "hairstyle".
• Heihachi from Samurai 7 has one dangling from his sword. It often changes expression to reflect his own mood.
• In one episode in season one of Aikatsu!, Ichigo makes a large Teru Teru Bozu doll in preparation for the on-coming storm. Because of its size, other characters believe that it'll work and aren't surprised when it does.
• In episode two of ReKan, Amami Hibiki meets the ghost of a schoolgirl offering her umbrella to strangers in the rain. When someone takes it, the faceless ghost demands their face in return, terrifying everyone in the school. Naturally, Amami isn't scared of the ghost at all, but is instead mortified because she accidentally made a comment about eyes when the ghost doesn't have any. To ask forgiveness, she makes the faceless ghost an upside-down Teru Teru Bozu, so she can hopefully use the increase in rain it brings to become friends with the ghost.

• Nichijou; the Professor smeared the inside of one with glue, and somehow it got stuck on Sakamoto's head. When he stumbles down the hallway trying to peel it off, Nakamura-sensei mistakes him for a ghost and freaks out.

• Renge of Non Non Biyori dresses up as a giant Teru Teru Bozu using a paper plate mask and white raincoat, and goes outside to drive away the rain. Komari happens to see it on her way to Renge's house and mistakes it for a monster because of the fog.
• In GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class, it rained for the day of the sports festival. Namiko and Tomokane say it's Kisaragi's fault, since she hung a teru teru bouzu upside-down, even though it was only for three minutes. The rain only has the effects of moving the sports festival activites indoors, and getting the obje'ts wet that were to be used for the big ball roll event.
• In episode 6 of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, Kobayashi makes three of these modeled after herself, Tohru, and Kanna.
• In Touhou Bougetsushou ~ Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth, Reisen and Tewi get stranded at Kourindo by a sudden thunderstorm. Tewi suggests they make a Teru Teru Bozu; in the last panel of the strip Rinnosuke enters the room and sees Reisen setting up a "noose".
• In Action Heroine Cheer Fruits episode 8, Yuki and Genki make a bunch of Teru Teru Bozu in the hopes of preventing a storm from ruining their next stage show. When they meet up with the rest of the team, it turns out everyone else had the same idea, resulting in the train station being covered with countless Teru Teru Bozu.
• They unsurprisingly appear in Weathering With You, considering the movie is largely centered around heavy rain. There was one hanging from the window of Hina's dying mother's hospital room on the day she gained the powers of the sunshine maiden. When Hina attempts to make a career out of her power to clear the rain, Hodaka makes her an umbrella with dozens of teru teru bozu hanging from the edge as a prop and a giant teru teru bozu costume for her little brother Nagi to wear as a mascot. Whether it helps or not isn't clear, but it doesn't hurt.
• Dragon Ball episode 133, Bulma hung a Teru Teru Bozu on the rainy night before the World's Martial Arts Tournament.
• Yuuutsu-kun to Succubus-san: In the first chapter, Sakuma the succubus decides to make a Teru-Teru Bōzu during a bout of gloomy weather. She draws the face on it to resemble Yuu, the depression-suffering man she's caring for. This, combined with the realization that Teru-Teru Bōzu are hung by the neck, prompt her to immediately abandon that option and suggest sacrificing a goat instead.
• Asteroid in Love started using it as a story element when the meteorology enthusiast Yuu joins the Earth Sciences Club.
  • In Chapter 33 / Episode 10, it rained on the day the club holds its orientation barbecue. Mai suggests the members make a lot of them so that the sky will clear up earlier
  • Just one episode later, Yuu herself suggests the club tieing these in hopes that the weather around Ishigaki Island will clear up, enabling Ao and Mira to find an asteroid while they're there.
• Hyakunichikan!!: In Chapter 10, Chiho's kindergarten class makes these, and later she and Komugi dress as teru-teru bozu to try and make the rain stop. Aoki also gives Shuuto one. The title page for the chapter has one hanging from Shuuto's leaf umbrella.

Comic Books

• Usagi Yojimbo: In the "Teru Teru Bozu" issue, Usagi shelters from a storm with a family of charcoal gatherers and makes a Teru Teru Bozu for their son.

Live-Action TV

• In a Dorama called With Love, one of the main characters used the screen name of Teru Teru Bozu and those played some sort of important role to her and her lover.
• Ultraman Leo's popular Flying Saucer Kaiju Nova is based on these (albeit bright red in colour) and is able to disguise itself as one that could spew a red gas that turned its victims violently insane.
  • Ultraman Orb takes this to its logical conclusion by having it turn into a Teru Teru Bozu for the Black Star Cafe.

Video Games

• The Pokémon Castform is based off of a Teru Teru Bozu. Shuppet starts as one too before evolving into a Banette.
• Mega Man 7: A minor enemy in Cloud Man's stage is designed after the teru teru bozu, flipping upside down and summoning rain when shot. (If it's already raining, shooting it with the Freeze Cracker causes it to summon snow instead.)
• One of these is an item in Monster Rancher DS. It doesn't seem to actually affect the weather, but it does reduce your monster's stress in springtime.
• Boktai has both a right-side up and upside-down Teru Bozu, the first always giving you at least two bars of sunlight and the second limiting you to one. In the English version they're called the "Mr. Rainnot" and "Tonniar .Rm", respectively.
• The Stage 3 boss of Parodius for the MSX is a teru teru bozu.
• In the online flash game Poupee girl, you can purchase teru teru bouzu dolls for your online avatar. They go in sale only when it's rainy season in Japan, though.
• In Gun Nac, teru teru bozu are minor enemies in the ocean level.
• In Chulip, the living scarecrow in Scarecrow Fields has teru teru bouzu hanging on his house. One the one hand, it makes sense that he wouldn't want it to rain, since his job entails standing around outside all day, but at the same time, he does work in a field... but then, it needs neither rain nor irrigation to instantly grow plants from seeds. It's anyone's guess as to whether or not they actually work, as it never rains anywhere in the game.
• Teru teru bozu appear as enemies in Wario Land 3, in "The Vast Plain" and "Beneath the Waves". They swoop down onto Wario's head and blacken the screen while they are on him until they are shaken off by running into a wall.
• In the Lonely Wolf Treat series, the mice who live in the rainy village of Wormwood are all dressed in white raincoats and smiley masks, giving them the appearance of a Teru-Teru Bōzu.
• The second installment of Yo-kai Watch Blasters introduces Mr. Blue-Shy/Tereteru-bozu, a Yo-kai that resembles the Teru teru bōzu.

Visual Novels

• One of the TIPS in Higurashi: When They Cry show Rika hanging a Teru Teru Bozu upside down in order to call in some rain. She's doing this because she's getting tired of the same sunshine that's happening over and over again during the summer. In her mother's eyes, however, this comes off as one of Rika's Creepy Child moments after Rika tells her mother why she wants them hung upside down.

Web Comics

• Marisa dresses as one for a strip in Mini Mari!. She's excited at first, but quickly discovers how boring it is.

Web Original

• The Ghostkerchief in Neopets is based on one, with file names and item description even referring to it as "sunshine monk". It's a spooky petpet and emphasis is placed on it looking like a ghost.

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