Some Mikuji of Fushimi Inari JinjaDaniel C. Buchanan

What has the future in store? What is my fortune for this coming year? When I come to a crossway in the journey of life, am I to turn to the left or right, or shall I go straight ahead? Who will help me to make the right decision? These are matters in which all men are interested. Hence the temples and shrines of Japan are thronged with people who are seeking the answer to these and many similar questions. One of the most popular methods of ascertaining what the future has in store is through the use of “mikuji”. The word means “sacred lot” or “divine fortune” and is written with the Chinese characters for “deity” and “lot”. Nearly every large shrine and many smaller ones too have somewhere in easy reach of the worshippers brass-bound hexagonal or octagonal wooden boxes containing numbered sticks. Sometimes the box is a brass tube. Through a small hole in the end, one stick at a time may be drawn and the number noted. This number corresponds to that of a printed fortune which, on payment of a small fee, may be secured from the priest at the shrine office. Sometimes the fortunes are written in numerical order on a large notice-board which is conspicuously placed by the “mikuji-bako” or “divine fortune box”.