In Japan there are lots of superstitions. One of them is that there are three years in your life which disasters are likely to happen. Last Saturday I went to the shrine which is for praying for protection from these disasters.
- For women the disaster years are 19, 33 and 61. For men they are 25, 42 and 61.
- You are supposed to visit the shrine the year before your disaster year to pray for protection and then the year after to thank the gods. Since I turn 19 next year I went to the shrine and did lots of praying!
- People visit all through out the year but in January there is actually a special disaster festival. However we missed it because it started on Sunday. The festival is called Yakuyoke mairu, meaning the time to avoid disasters.
- You could buy white arrows to keep and burn next year. On Sunday people started to burn the arrows which they bought last year.
It was a shame that we didn't get to see the festival, but in any case it was a nice shrine to walk around. The shrine was called
Iwashimizu Hachimangu and it takes about 20 minutes on the Keihan line from Kyoto station to Yawata-shi station. From Yawata-shi station you then take a cable car up the mountain and then walk for about 5 minutes to the shrine.
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| Iwashimizu Hachimangu Shrine |
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| A dance with peoples white arrows. |
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| Omikuji |
So interesting! I'd be curious to know how the belief started or how the specific years were chosen. Fortunately I've already passed 19 and I have a few years left before 33! :)
ReplyDeleteGlad you find it interesting :) I`m not sure how the tradition started or why they decided those years were disaster years!
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