Evil-Destroying Arrow 破魔矢
I was recently able to obtain a Hamaya again for my kamidana from Kannagara Inari Shrine in Florida. These arrows are a common Engimono 縁起物, obtained at shrines and temples during the New Year's period. They can be very simple with it simply being the arrow with nothing attached like this:
To incredibly elaborate and ornate like this:
However the standard one has a few key features on it:
The colors being red, white, and gold are auspicious colors. Although some Hamaya will just be white.
An ema for the upcoming year's Zodiac typically on the ema the phrase Kaiun Shōfuku 開運招福 meaning welcoming in good fortune
You'll often see banners in Red with Gold Text reading the same phrase as the ema, or on fancier arrows from shrines the 5 colored ribbons representing the 5 elements
Bells, these I had I harder time finding info for the why, but my guess is the noise drives away demons as is typical for many festivals where you make a lot of noise to either gather the attention of good things or drive away the bad
Anyways I hope you all found this interesting. Once we get closer to the New Year's I'll start sharing some how to's and cleaning tips for kamidana.
Kannagara Inari also with the arrow included their season publication which was fun :)
