Curses

This is a photo of some omikuji at the Yasukuni shrine during their summer matsuri. Omikuji are intricate fortunes that are written on strips of paper. People visiting the shrine can draw a omikuji and then check to see if they will have good luck or bad luck in the future. If the omikuji predicts bad luck, then visitors will tie the paper to a tree branch or other designated object at the shrine. The hope is that the misfortune will similarly be tied to the object and unable to follow the person and negatively affect their life. Here, the omikuji are tied to a set of thin wooden rods that were set up for this purpose at the shrine.

7/16/2016
Yasukuni Shrine, Tokyo, Japan