Irugi Shrine: Push Out Bad Luck with Special Prayer Plaques

January 21, 2023

At a glance, Irugi Shrine is just like any other. Yet one thing sets it apart: it has votive plaques designed to rid oneself of bad luck symbolically.

Unique Votive Plaques

In Shinto belief, there are certain ages that are considered to attract misfortune. For men, these ages are 25, 42, and 61, while for women these are 19, 33, and 37. These years are called “yakudoshi” (厄年), where the word “yaku” (厄) refers to misfortune and “doshi” (年) to years. Yakudoshi follows the traditional age of reckoning in Japan, wherein a person is automatically one year old at birth. Therefore, international age, these ages are 24, 41, and 60 for men, and 18, 32, and 36 for women.

To protect yourself, you can go to a shrine priest and ask them to pray over you or buy an amulet. Irugi Shrine adds a unique custom to this practice with prayer plaques that are especially designed so that you can push out the kanji for misfortune.

This practice is called “yakuotoshi” and you can find five variations of these votive plaques in Irugi Shrine:

厄 (yaku) – general misfortune
八 (ha) – misfortune from all directions (based on onmyodo divination where the position of your star sign is said to be at the center and thus vulnerable to attacks from all directions
鬼 (oni) – demons
病 (byo) – sickness
災 (sai) disaster

Each prayer plaque costs ¥500. To perform yakuotoshi, you write your name and age on the wooden votive plaque and then push out the kanji in the middle. There is a small box where you can put the kanji character that you push out. After that, you hang the prayer plaque in the designated place.

Note that one doesn’t have to be at what is considered to be an unlucky age to buy to perform yakuotoshi. If you’re feeling unlucky, you can simply buy the votive plaque from the shrine, no questions asked.

Cartoon Character Statues

One other quirky thing that Irugi Shrine is known for is the rather-out of place stone statues of cartoon and anime characters placed at different spots, each with varying degrees of similarity to the original. You’ll find Pikachu, Doraemon, and Mickey Mouse among others. According to this website, these statues come from a gravestone-making company that the shrine has ties with. Apparently, the excess cement is used to make these somewhat adorable, somewhat creepy statues.

As for copyright, well, this isn’t the only place in Japan with rather odd statues. This private lot in Iwate, for example, is a wonderland for curious travelers who stumble upon it.

Omikuji

You’ll find a tent with omikuji fortune slips opposite the shrine office. There are several different kinds, but two that caught my attention were omukuji with English translations and omikuji for kids. In recent years, popular temples and shrines have adapted to the international market and have begun offering English fortune slips. I wasn’t expecting one in Irugi Shrine, however, because it’s not as well known, but I suppose having a page at Atlas Obscura attracts English-speaking visitors, too.