For those in need of a little midwinter relief at this time of long dark nights in the northern hemisphere, the Japan Today site has a light-hearted look at omikuji fortune slips.  It’s designed to introduce Japanese customs to foreigners in the form of a manga. Apart from the obvious, there are some interesting titbits of information.  For one thing I didn’t know that omikuji hangers that one sees at many shrines were erected as an environmental measure to protect trees.

Another interesting item of interest is the assertion that love is not mentioned in relation to marriage in fortune slips because of the legacy of Edo times when omikuji became popular. The social tendency of the age was to form marital alliances of mutual convenience, as a way of cementing bonds between families or as a trade-off between money and status.  Love was seen as fickle and fragile, a temporary passion which would not form a stable basis for marriage. Duty and obligation were valued more highly.

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