The left-hand side photo and the movie above are showing a "Omikuji vending machine" that can be found in Japanese temples and shrines. I wrote about "Hatsu-moude (The First Visit for Prayer)" yesterday on this blog. When people visit a shrine or a temple for "Hatsu-moude", many of them like to try "Omikuji". "Omikuji" is lottery-style traditional fortune-telling papers. When you pick up a piece of folded paper from a box or a tray at a temple/shrine, there is a message from Japanese gods regarding your luck.
It is a very common and fun activity that costs only a few hundred-yen (1 or 2 dollars), so many people try it when they visit a shrine or a temple especially for "Hatsu-moude". Usually you can buy "Omikuji" at booths of shrines and temples as same as their lucky charms, but in these days some shrines and temples have installed "Omikuji vending machines" as you can see in the left hand side photo and movie.
In the "Omikuji vending machines", actually a small robot will pick up a fortune-telling paper for you after you insert coins to the machine. The robot is representing traditional "Shishi-mai (Shishi-dance)" style. "Shishi-mai" is a traditional Japanese custom, which you can see in the right hand side photo, to give a blessing to people. A person wears a imaginary creature, Shishi's mask, and play the role at festivals and new year celebrations. Shishi dances and sometimes bite people. It is said that if you are bitten on your head by Shishi, you would stay healthy for the year. Shishi can bring good health to people.
For the "Omikuji vending machines", Shishi-robots bite an Omikuji paper and bring it to you. However it can be a bad luck because "Omikuji" papers usually contain "big luck, luck, small luck and bad luck. When you try Omikuji vending machines, hope the Shishi-robot brings a good luck to you!
The photos and movies were taken at Ueno Kanei-ji temple Kiyomizu-kannon-do in Taito-ku Tokyo, and Koyasu Shrine in Hachioji city Tokyo.
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