ofuda

The shimenawa and the paper gohei are the true emblems of Shinto: even the ofuda and the mamori are quite modern.

Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan Second Series Lafcadio Hearn 1877

But the ordinary kamidana is of white wood, and is made larger or smaller in proportion to the size of the miya, or the number of the ofuda and other sacred objects to be placed upon it.

Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan Second Series Lafcadio Hearn 1877

On this is usually placed a small Shinto shrine (miya) containing tablets bearing the names of gods (one at least of which tablets is furnished by the neighbouring Shinto parish temple), and various ofuda, holy texts or charms which most often are written promises in the name of some Kami to protect his worshipper.

Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan Second Series Lafcadio Hearn 1877

If there be no miya, the tablets or ofuda are simply placed upon the shelf in a certain order, the most sacred having the middle place.

Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan Second Series Lafcadio Hearn 1877

Should any member of the family be thus buried, then during fifty days [12] the kamidana must be entirely screened from view with pure white paper, and even the Shinto ofuda, or pious invocations fastened upon the house-door, must have white paper pasted over them.

Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan Second Series Lafcadio Hearn 1877

But the Shinto household shrine must be hidden from view with white paper; and the Shinto ofuda fastened upon the house door must be covered up during all the period of mourning.

Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan Second Series Lafcadio Hearn 1877

Scientific education is rapidly destroying credulity in old superstitions yet current among the unlettered, and especially among the peasantry -- as, for instance, faith in mamori and ofuda.

Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan Second Series Lafcadio Hearn 1877

If several great deities are represented in the miya or upon the kamidana by several ofuda, then a separate lamp is sometimes lighted for each; and if there be a butsuma in the dwelling, its tapers or lamp are lighted at the same time.

Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan Second Series Lafcadio Hearn 1877

The form of the butsudan or butsuma, the character of its holy images, its ofuda, or its pictures, and even the prayers said before it, differ according to the fifteen different shu, or sects; and a very large volume would have to be written in order to treat the subject of the butsuma exhaustively.

Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan Second Series Lafcadio Hearn 1877

The kakemono of the Goddess of Mercy with her lunar aureole was gone, but on the wall facing the shrine he beheld his own dainty gift suspended, and an ofuda beneath it -- an ofuda of Hito-koto-Kwannon [10] -- that Kwannon unto whom it is unlawful to pray more than once, as she answers but a single prayer.

Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan Second Series Lafcadio Hearn 1877