Take a trip through the thatched ring in 2021

2021 has shattered records with Japan’s earliest rainy season on record. And, it being June, half of 2021 has already come and gone.

During this mid-summer month shrines throughout the country will be setting up their chinowa (thatched rings for the summer purification ritual). Passing through the ring (chinowa kuguri) in the final days of June is said to dispel any bad luck that’s following you and bring good luck for the rest of the year.

This Shinto ritual comes from an old Japanese myth about a kami who received help from a poor man during his travels. To repay the man, the kami gave him a thatched ring and told the man to wear it to ward off illness. According to legend, the thatched ring worked and the man was able to avoid misfortune. Rituals using chinowa rings have a very long history in Japan, dating back to at least the Nara period (710-794 CE).

Traditions vary slightly depending on the shrine you visit, but the basic idea is to pass through the ring four times in a figure 8. It’s custom at the shrine I visit to repeat the phrase 水無月の夏越の祓する人は、千歳の命延ぶというなり, which essentially means those who perform the summer purification ritual should live a long life. The phrase is supposed to be uttered silently as you walk through the chinowa. But the first time I did it, I very much said it out loud. That was embarrassing!

Here’s a chinowa that I saw at the entrance to a restaurant. (Picture was taken at Wakuden in Kyoto in a previous year)

It seems 2021 has not gone as planned for many people. For some, it has. Try walking through the chinowa for this mid-summer Japanese tradition, especially if you want to turn over a new leaf!