Omikuji

Drawing and tying fortunes

Visitors receive an omikuji by giving a modest offering and taking a paper strip randomly from a container, though modern vending machines are sometimes used today. The slip outlines general luck ranging from great blessings to misfortune, alongside specific advice for marriage, lost items, childbirth, and business. When a recipient receives an unwelcome prediction, they fold the paper and tie it to shrine pine trees or metal wire frames. This practice relies on a Japanese wordplay between the noun for pine tree, matsu, and the verb to wait, encouraging ill fortune to linger by the tree rather than following the person home. Favourable fortunes can also be fastened to grounds to boost their power, or carried home for personal good luck.

Origins and Chinese roots

The practice is widely thought to have developed from kau chim, a Chinese divination method using bamboo sticks in a canister paired with written oracles. Japanese temple lots trace their verse structures back to Southern Song dynasty texts. A preserved wooden lot box from 1409 at Tendai-ji in Iwate Prefecture shows that this divination arrived before the Muromachi period. Tradition credits the Heian era Tendai monk Ryōgen with a hundred-poem divination system known as Ganzan Daishi Hyakusen, said to be revealed by the Bodhisattva Kannon. The monk Tenkai later revived these verses during the Edo period after finding copies at Togakushi Shrine.

Community roles and related customs

Beyond personal fortune-telling, the word kuji signifies both impartial chance and the act of asking for divine judgment from a kami. In certain regional festivals, sacred lots help choose designated leaders, known as tonin, or assign religious duties for the upcoming year. For these selections, candidates write their names on slips, and a touch from a ritual gohei wand decides the outcome. The tradition shares similarities with ema, which are wooden prayer tablets inscribed with personal wishes and suspended on wooden frames. Omikuji may also have inspired modern fortune cookies, connected to nineteenth-century crackers called tsujiura senbei from Kyoto.

How Omikuji is kept

A visitor approaches a shrine or temple and provides a small offering. They select a slip of paper by chance from a box or machine. The reader inspects the general rating, which indicates anything from a great blessing to misfortune, and reads detailed forecasts for specific life matters. If the fortune is auspicious, the visitor may keep the slip or tie it to designated wires or pine branches on the grounds to strengthen its good effect. If the fortune predicts misfortune, the visitor folds the strip and ties it securely to the temple wires or trees so the bad luck stays behind.

When and where

Omikuji can be drawn whenever a person visits a Shinto shrine or Buddhist temple. They are sought during personal pilgrimages, routine worship, and annual community festivals throughout the year.

This custom takes place at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples across Japan. Specific historical lots have been preserved in places such as Iwate Prefecture, while regional festivals in various provinces continue using lots for civic and sacred duties.

What Omikuji means

The custom represents consulting the divine will of kami or Buddhist figures on everyday hopes and challenges. Tying bad fortunes to pine trees acts as a symbolic pun on the Japanese word matsu, which means both pine and to wait. This ritual binding asks unwanted luck to wait at the sacred site instead of clinging to the person. Good fortunes carry divine blessings that can be held close or reinforced on holy ground.

Questions people ask about Omikuji

See also

HatsumōdeThe first shrine or temple visit of the Japanese New Year to pray for good fortuneHadaka MatsuriJapanese festivals where participants clad in loincloths seek luck and purificationTraditional tattooingThe ancient custom of marking the skin for protection, healing, status and sacred ritesPostpartum confinementA period of rest, nourishment, and seclusion for mothers after giving birth.

Good reading and sources

• O-mikuji on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-04.