Also called IT jōhō anzen omamori, electronics charm, denki kuyo, robot funeral
Kanda Myojin, the old Tokyo shrine beside Akihabara, sells an omamori for the safety of computers and data. Japanese Buddhism also holds kuyo, memorial rites of thanks for worn-out tools, from sewing needles to Sony's Aibo robot dogs. Together they give a full life cycle for a machine: a charm when it arrives and a thank-you when it goes.
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Take care: Wipe and back up a device before recycling it, and use a certified electronics recycler; batteries can catch fire in household trash. Treat shrine amulets with respect: do not cut them open, and return them to a shrine rather than throwing them away.
Kanda Myojin sits a short walk from Akihabara's electronics district. Among its amulets is one for the safety of IT and data, styled like a circuit board in black and gold and sold with stickers for phones and laptops. It is sold in the shrine's amulet hall and is a favorite with office workers and tech visitors.
Seamstresses and tailors bring broken and bent needles to temples and shrines and push them into a soft block of tofu or konnyaku, giving them a gentle rest after hard work. Awashima-do at Senso-ji in Tokyo holds it on 8 February; Kansai holds it on 8 December.
Uses: broken needles, tofu or konnyaku
After Sony stopped repairing its first Aibo robot dogs in 2014, a repair company began holding memorial services at Kofukuji, a Buddhist temple in Isumi, Chiba. The head priest, Bungen Oi, chanted sutras for the dogs before their parts were reused. By April 2018 about 800 Aibo had been honored this way.
Omamori are small amulets sold at shrines and temples, each for a single kind of help, such as safe driving or exam success. Kanda Myojin, a shrine traditionally dated to 730 and moved to its present hill in 1616, became the guardian shrine of Akihabara as the district filled with electronics shops. In the 2000s it began offering a charm for the safety of IT and information, one of the few shrine amulets made for computers. That charm is a real shrine product, not our invention.
Kuyo are Buddhist memorial services of thanks and release, held for things that served people well: needles, dolls, eyeglasses and brushes. In 2015 the Kofukuji temple in Isumi held the first of its rites for broken Aibo robot dogs, and the head priest told reporters that all things have a bit of soul. Our home version simply joins these two real customs into one routine for any device. It is an adaptation, not a shrine rite.
Small brocade pouches sold at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in Japan, each holding a blessed paper or wood slip for a specific kind of protection or luck. You carry one unopened for about a year, then return it to be burned with thanks.
A round, weighted papier-mâché doll of the Zen founder Bodhidharma, sold with blank eyes. You paint in one eye when you set a goal and the second when you reach it, then return the doll to a temple to be burned.
In Japan salt (shio) is a common means of purification rooted in Shinto ideas of cleansing impurity: sprinkled after a funeral, heaped in small cones at doorways, and thrown by sumo wrestlers before a bout.
Tell us what you need and we will craft a custom spell, charm or reading for it. Or call to book a reading or a road blessing in person.
