Arab News Japan

TOKYO: While Japan follows the Western Gregorian calendar, it still refers to years with Chinese animal designations, of which there are 12. This year is the Year of the Snake.

Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo’s Shinagawa Ward is dedicated to the white snake, which is regarded as a harbinger of good luck.

Even luckier for the shrine, the “Day of the Snake” recurs every 12 days and Japanese seeking good fortune, or just an upturn in their luck, often visit on these days.

The legend of the white snake dates back nearly a thousand years. It is said a white snake found a home in a washing area at the shrine and when the washing area disappeared, the snake suddenly found itself homeless.

But a local dignitary had a dream that the snake needed a home, so he ordered a pond to be dug, and a new shrine was built to welcome the snake back.

The shrine now features a statue of a white snake with its “wife,” and visitors to the shrine pay their respects to this stone-sculptured couple. The Japanese on Saturday flocked to the shrine, which also has an 8-meter-long dragon and other decorative snakes.

Hebikubo Shrine is also one of the shrines that Japanese visit to wash their money in the hope of bringing good financial fortune. The money you wash must be kept clean thereafter.

Good luck charms and a stamp book are sold at the shrine and people write their wishes on votive boards that they leave at the shrine. You can also buy an “Ichiryu Okubai,” a rice-shaped charm with the meaning “one grain will produce a hundred million,” another wish for good fortune.

One more interesting feature of the shrine is the “Guchi Tsubo” – the “complaining pot” – where people remove the lid and shout their major complaints into the pot in the hope that that’s where they will remain.