Making “Bakuya” at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine Preparing for the New Year Kanagawa Kamakura December 1 12:05
Work is underway at the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine in Kamakura City, Kanagawa Prefecture, to create a New Year's lucky charm “Bakuya”.
At Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine where many worshipers visit every year for the first time, it is during this period that they are working on making a “magical arrow” that is supposed to be a disaster.
After the priesthood and Miko attached a wooden part called “kabura” to the tip of the arrow with the bird's wings, they wrapped white paper around the arrow.
Finally, the gold and silver bells were tied with red and white strings to carefully finish the “Bakuya” one by one.
There are two types of arrows, 60 cm and 94 cm in length, and a total of about 250,000 will be prepared, which means that work will continue until mid-December.
One of Miko said, “I'm making it so that everyone who has received the demon arrows can have a good year.”
In the future, Tsuruoka Hachimangu will make preparations for the New Year by making soot payments at the end of the year and replacing the torsion ropes.