Dorodango is a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese art form in which earth and water are molded to create a delicate shiny sphere, resembling a marble or billiard ball.

Etymology

The phrase 泥だんご, reading dorodango is derived from

• 泥 (doro どろ) literally "mud" in Japanese
• だんご (dango
  Dango
  is a Japanese dumpling made from mochiko , related to mochi. It is often served with green tea.Dango are eaten year-round, but the different varieties are traditionally eaten in given seasons...
  
  ) are a type of round dumpling, created from pressed rice flour.

Technique

Making the basic dorodango is a traditional pastime for school children, somewhat like English conkers.

More recently the process has been refined into the art of the hikaru ("shining") dorodango (光る泥だんご), which has a glossy or patterned surface. The core of the ball is made of basic mud, and further dusted with finer-grained soil before the water is drawn out through various methods- even sealing the ball inside a plastic bag and letting the water evaporate and then condense. Once the ball is fully tempered and hardened, it is polished by hand and displayed.

Trivia

In the episode "End with a Bang" (Episode 113) of the Discovery Channel

Discovery Channel

Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...

 series "MythBusters

MythBusters

MythBusters is a science entertainment TV program created and produced by Beyond Television Productions for the Discovery Channel. The series is screened by numerous international broadcasters, including Discovery Channel Australia, Discovery Channel Latin America, Discovery Channel Canada, Quest...

" that first aired on November 12, 2008, hosts Adam Savage

Adam Savage

Adam Whitney Savage is an American industrial design and special effects designer/fabricator, actor, educator, and co-host of the Discovery Channel television series MythBusters. His model work has appeared in major films, including Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones and The Matrix...

 and Jamie Hyneman

Jamie Hyneman

James Franklin "Jamie" Hyneman is an American special effects expert, best known for being the co-host of the television series MythBusters. He is also the owner of M5 Industries, the special effects workshop where MythBusters is filmed...

 investigated the truth behind everyday sayings. They used the dorodango technique to create dung spheres in order to bust the myth that one "can't polish a turd

Feces

Feces, faeces, or fæces is a waste product from an animal's digestive tract expelled through the anus or cloaca during defecation.-Etymology:...

". Using a glossmeter

Glossmeter

A glossmeter measures specular reflection. The light intensity is registered over a small range of the reflection angle. The intensity is dependent on the material and the angle of illumination. In case of non-metals the amount of reflected light increases with the increase of the illumination angle...

, they measured gloss levels substantially higher than the value of 70 gloss units which is considered "high gloss". Savage's 106 gloss unit dorodango used an ostrich's feces, while Hyneman's 183 gloss unit specimen used a lion's feces.

External links

• "Shiny Mud Balls: Kyoto Professor Taps into the Essence of Play"
• Illustrated step-by-step guide to making Hikaru Dorodango
• Dorodango: Shining Mud Ball
• dorodango.com A gallery of marble-like Dorodango, and instructions for creating dorodango
• "Shiny Balls of Mud" -(William Gibson
  William Gibson
  William Gibson is an American-Canadian science fiction author.William Gibson may also refer to:-Association football:*Will Gibson , Scottish footballer...
  
  , TATE Magazine)