Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Omikuji
(
御御籤
,
御神籤
, or
おみくじ
; lit. “paper fortune” and “sacred lottery”) are little
strips of paper upon which a random fortune has been written. One makes a small offering
(perhaps a five- or ten-Yen coin into a vending machine) and receives the scrolled or folded
piece of paper. If the fortune or advice is good, you might keep it or tie it on to a set of wires
or string set up for that purpose. If the fortune is bad, you may wish to tie it on to a nearby
pine tree, leaving it there to “wait” for someone else. This custom is a play on the word
matsu
,
which means both “pine tree” (
松
) and the verb “'to wait” (
待つ
). It is speculated that the
omikuji
paper fortune custom evolved into the US Chinese restaurant custom of “fortune
cookies.”
You may also see paper strips tied on to lengths of rope. Thought to ward of evil spirits,
shimenawa
(
しめ縄
; lit “sacred shrine enclosing rope”) are lengths of braided rice straw rope.
A space or an object bound by
shimenawa
often indicates something sacred or pure. Perhaps
the most famous example of
shimenawa
is the “Wedded Rocks” (
夫婦岩
; Méoto Iwa) in the
sea near Futami, Mie, (
三重県二見町
) in the south of Japan's main island of Honshu.
One more thing you'll always see at a Shinto shrine is a large collection of
ema
(絵馬;
lit.
“wooden plaque”), usually affixed or tied on to an
ema
rack.
Ema
are small wooden plaques
on which worshippers write their prayers or wishes. The plaques are left hanging at the shrine
where the
kami
may (hopefully) receive them. Common
ema
prayers are what one might ex-
pect: health, happiness, love, marriage, children, job, school and success.
An ema rack holding wooden prayer plaques.
