Introduction
Money might be the root of all evil, but we can’t exactly live without it under capitalism — it underscores our daily existence, defines our lifestyles, opens up options in a world that feels increasingly like a pay-to-play system.
Whether asking for windfalls or winning lottery numbers, people have always prayed for wealth and financial fortune. Little surprise, then, that Japan should have more than a handful of shrines focused entirely on attracting financial luck through prayer.
Of course, prayer is best augmented by purchasing lucky charms; everyone knows you need to invest money to make money, and no one knows this better than the shrine selling them to you.
Cynical observations notwithstanding, there’s a certain charm to all these money shrines. They speak to our collective yearning to better our own circumstances by asking for a little help from the universe.
These shrines in Tokyo are beloved for their reputed power in granting financial windfalls, whether in the form of unexpected bonuses, winning lottery tickets, or higher salaries. Even if nothing comes of it, the first step towards achieving one’s goals is articulating them. Prayer is one way to set those intentions and speak them into the universe. We may as well have fun at the same time by visiting some cool places.
Yushima Tenmangū
Lotteries have likely existed for as long as any functioning society. The earliest surviving record of anything similar dates back to the Chinese Han dynasty between 205 and 187 BC. In Japan, they were known as ‘fortune tickets’ during the Edo period, and while operating lotteries was banned by the shogunate from around the 1680s to the early 1700s, the practice simply moved underground for a time. People will always find a way where dreams of instant wealth are concerned.
In 1730, the shogunate began to allow certain shrines and temples to conduct lotteries. The government was strapped for cash, and had cut back on subsidies to religious institutions; as such, shrines and temples were permitted to sell lottery tickets to raise funds for repairs and other expenses.
(Fun fact: Around this time, Tomioka Hachimangu Shrine in Tokyo also started hosting sumo matches — previously outlawed — to raise funds for repairing the roof of the main shrine building. Naturally, this provided plenty of opportunities for making bets.)
Lotteries became wildly popular in Edo, with 31 officially sanctioned lottery venues across the city, and as many as 20 lotteries held in a single month. The lottery drawing would take place on the shrine or temple grounds, starting with Buddhist chanting, followed by an official, supervised drawing from a box of numbered wooden ‘tickets.’ A blindfolded person would use a long awl to extract a random ticket. The lucky winner could receive up to 1,000 ryō. Given that 1 ryō was equivalent to around ¥100,000 today, it was a tremendous, life-changing sum of money.
Out of all the licensed operators in the city, the ‘Edo no Santomi’ or ‘Three Famous Lottery Sites of Edo’ were the most active. These were Kannō-ji Temple (now Tenno-ji Temple in Yanaka), Meguro Fudō-in, and Yushima Tenmangū (also called Yushima Tenjin).
This Edo-period designation gave Yushima Tenmangū a reputation for boosting one’s luck in the lottery. However, the shrine is more commonly associated with success in entrance exams, since it is dedicated to Sugawara no Michizane, the deity of scholarship. Even then, he was only enshrined here in 1355; the shrine itself has an even longer history, having apparently been established in 458 on the orders of the then-ruler.
Mimeguri Shrine
Visitors stepping into the precincts of Mimeguri Shrine are first greeted by a bronze statue of a lion couchant. Londoners may recognise it as a cousin to the Trafalgar Square lion; Tokyoites will know it as the twin of the lion in front of Mitsukoshi Department Store in Nihonbashi. In fact, this lion statue was donated to the shrine by the now-shuttered Ikebukuro branch of Mitsukoshi in 2009.
What business does a lion statue have with a Shinto shrine? Why, business, of course — business prosperity, to be precise. Mimeguri’s fortunes have been entwined with that of the Mitsui clan since the 1800s, when they ran the famous kimono shop Echigoya in Ginza; Echigoya would evolve into Mitsukoshi when the clan became the Mitsui zaibatsu.
Mimeguri is written with the characters 三囲, while Mitsui is written 三井. Not only did the two share a kanji, 囲 appeared to encircle and ‘protect’ 井 — ideal as the clan had been searching for a shrine northwest of their headquarters.
Given its connections with the Mitsui family, the lion statue is now thought to bestow financial luck and prosperity on those who touch it. But for centuries prior, regular folk of all stripes had already been frequenting the shrine in the hopes of attracting success in monetary and business endeavours. Those who can’t make it to Mimeguri Shrine proper can simply visit one of the rooftop branch shrines at the Mitsukoshi department stores nationwide.
Myōsen Temple
Japanese folklore has multiple kami for wealth and prosperity. But it’s not all roses: there is also a deity of poverty (binbōgami). This spectre of poverty can appear in many forms, but is usually described as being a pale, melancholy, emaciated old man carrying a paper fan; he is, rather bizarrely, very fond of miso.
At the Nichiren Buddhist Myōsen-ji Temple in Yanaka, the deity of poverty is a statue with a monkey modelled after the King Bomby character from the game series Momotaro. This is the ‘Statue of Poverty Leaving,’ placed in front of the temple in 2003. ‘貧乏が去る binbō ga saru’ means ‘poverty goes away,’ and ‘saru’ is a pun on the word for ‘monkey’ — hence the monkey perched on the deity’s head.
(Folklore fact: In the Tale of Momotaro the Peach Boy, one of his travelling companions is a talking monkey. Yet another theory suggests that the monkey is an incarnation of Bishamonten, one of the Four Heavenly Kings and also one of the Seven Lucky Gods.)
To avail yourself of its anti-poverty powers, first put your hands together in prayer. Gently stroke the deity’s head, then the monkey’s head. Get thee behind me, poverty!
Koami Shrine
The Tokyo Great Air Raid that took place on 10 March 1945 holds the unenviable record of having the highest number of casualties and largest area destroyed — around 41 km2 of the city — of any single air raid during WWII. All the more remarkable, then, is the existence of pre-war buildings that survived the deadly event.
One structure that survived the bombings is Koami Shrine in Nihonbashi. With a main hall built in 1929, this modest shrine was originally built in 1466 in the hopes of quelling the plague at the time. During the war, soldiers who had been blessed at the shrine’s farewell ceremony reputedly made it home safe and sound. Today, it’s better known for bestowing a little good luck on the financial front.
A corner of Koami Shrine houses Tokyo Zeniarai Benten. Benzaiten — or Saraswati as she’s known in Hinduism — is the goddess of the arts, speech, learning, dragons, snakes, good fortune, and wealth, and ‘things that flow,’ like music and time. (She’s a busy lady.) Zeni-arai means literally washing one’s money in the well in front of Benzaiten. One could call it a spiritually sanctioned method of money laundering.
All you have to do is put your money in a small basket provided by the shrine, immerse it in water, and rinse it off. Coins, bills, and even credit cards are fine. Then, keep the washed money in your wallet — preferably after you dry it off — without spending it. This is ‘tanesen’ or ‘seed money,’ which is supposed to attract more money. To fortify your newfound financial fortune-attracting moolah, there are lucky amulets available for purchase. It couldn’t be otherwise.
Hōroku Inari Shrine
Lotteries by definition beget losers. So what does one do with worthless tickets? You deposit them at Hōroku Inari Shrine in Shinjuku, and send them to the other world with prayers to the fox deity.
Hōroku Inari Shrine is one of the subsidiary shrines of Ana-Hachimangu Shrine. When it was founded is unclear, but it does have a fun origin story. Long ago, there was once a farmer who was known for having fabulous luck with lottery tickets. However, he didn’t start out that way. In the beginning, he would spend all of his hard-earned money on lottery tickets, only to lose and earn the ire of his mother.
One day, he found some money that his mother had earned by working late into the night. He took the coins and spent them on lottery tickets, telling himself that he’d get lucky this time. Of course, he didn’t. Dejected, he trudged back up the mountain towards his home, and on the way, he stopped to rest in front of a small, humble Inari shrine.
The farmer still had the losing ticket in his wallet. Fearing his mother’s wrath should she catch him with it — and worse, discover that he had purloined her money to buy it — he placed the ticket in front of the shrine, and prayed that he would be able to bring her happiness one day.
A few months later, the farmer had saved up some money, and went down the mountain again to spend it on lottery tickets. Dreams of instant wealth die hard. But to his delight and everyone’s surprise, he hit the jackpot. From then on, his fortunes took a turn for the better: Everything he touched seemed to turn to gold, and his family lived a happy, comfortable life. Wanting to express his gratitude to the deities of the shrine, he had the shrine rebuilt.
Today, people still visit the shrine to leave their lottery duds as an offering, hoping for better luck next time. The priests collect them throughout the year, and on 22 May, hold a ceremony where the tickets are burned and dedicated to the fox deity Inari.
Fukutoku Shrine
Fukutoku Shrine, also known as Mebuki Inari Shrine, was founded around 865. Once covering an area of around 1,100 sqm2 at its peak in 1619, it has been resized and relocated numerous times over the centuries due to the usual reasons such as fire, air raids, government appropriation of shrine land, and commercial redevelopment in the area, finally winding up in its present location in 2014.
Like Yushima Tenmangū, Fukutoku was one of the few shrines authorised by the shogunate to conduct lotteries during the Edo period. Its name is suited to the role: ‘fuku’ means ‘happiness,’ while ‘toku’ refers to wealth and blessings. Ukanomitama, the deity of food and agriculture, and Benzaiten, are both enshrined here.
Lotteries are just as popular today as they were back then, and the shrine attracts scores of visitors hoping to get lucky. However, Fukutoku is also popular with another demographic: idol fans who want to score tickets to concerts and special meet-and-greet events. One does not simply purchase tickets to see the most popular idols and musicians in Japan. Instead, there is an application to purchase them, and you may or may not be one of the lucky few selected via a lottery system.
Since Fukutoku Shrine is supposed to bring good luck for lotteries in general, it stands to reason that one can apply the same logic to scoring concert tickets. Not only is there an appropriate lucky amulet for this occasion, for the low, low price of ¥5,000, the priests can also conduct a ticket selection prayer ceremony to improve your odds.
Written by Florentyna Leow