Note 172 — ABSTRACTION
Reading edition
Bôdhidharma, the first Buddhist Patriarch of China, whither he came from India in a.d. 520. He is said to have remained seated in abstraction gazing at a wall for nine years, till his legs rotted off. His name is, in Japan, generally associated with the ludicrous. Thus certain legless and shapeless dolls are called after him, and snow-figures are denominated Yuki-daruma (Snow Daruma).