Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 19, 2025
But by far the greater number of the ofuda are Shinto Upon almost every door there is one ofuda especially likely to attract the attention of a stranger, because at the foot of the column of ideographs composing its text there are two small figures of foxes, a black and a white fox, facing each other in a sitting posture, each with a little bunch of rice-straw in its mouth, instead of the more usual emblematic key.
These ofuda are from the great Inari temple of Oshiroyama, within the castle grounds, and are charms against fire. They represent, indeed, the only form of assurance against fire yet known in Matsue, so far, at least, as wooden dwellings are concerned.
The shimenawa and the paper gohei are the true emblems of Shinto: even the ofuda and the mamori are quite modern. Not only before the household shrine, but also above the house-door of almost every home in Izumo, the shimenawa is suspended.
But the Shinto household shrine must be hidden from view with white paper; and the Shinto ofuda fastened upon the house door must be covered up during all the period of mourning. And in all that time no member of the family may approach a Shinto temple, or pray to the Kami, or even pass beneath a torii.
Scientific education is rapidly destroying credulity in old superstitions yet current among the unlettered, and especially among the peasantry as, for instance, faith in mamori and ofuda. The outward forms of Buddhism its images, its relics, its commoner practices affect the average student very little.
The shaft is a thin bamboo, split down for about one-third of its length; into the slit a strip of strong white paper with ideographs upon it an ofuda, a Shinto charm is inserted; and the separated ends of the cane are then rejoined and tied together just above it. The whole, at a little distance, has exactly the appearance of a long, light, well- feathered arrow.
Ordinarily there will be found upon the kamidana nothing but the simple miya containing some ofuda: very, very seldom will a mirror be seen, or gohei except the gohei attached to the small shimenawa either hung just above the kamidana or suspended to the box-like frame in which the miya sometimes is placed.
Much more interesting to me than the ofuda of the Miojinja are the yoraku, the pendent ex-votos in the Hojinji, a temple of the Zen sect which stands on the summit of the beautiful hill above the great Shinto shrine.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking