Senjafuda

Senjafuda were first produced in the Heian period 794 to 1185 when shrine worshipers made pilgrimages to visits to many shrines and worship the Buddhist goddess of mercy, Kannon. They were not originally made of paper, they were first made from wooden slats that were hung from the gates of Kannon temples by nails made of bamboo. The slats were carved out with the visitors' name, area of origin and often included a prayer for a good life and afterlife. There are two styles of Senjafuda, the older style, daimei nosatsu and kokan nosatsu the new style. Daimei nosatsu are basic black ink on white paper. The sumi ink used is so strong that after the printed senjafuda was placed on the shrine or temple gate, years later when the paper peeled away, the ink remained. Therefore many shrine Kannushi or shinshoku do not like the use of senjafuda. Add to the fact that younger senjafuda practitioners nowadays, do not follow tradition and pray nor buy a stamp from the shrine before applying their senjafuda.

Hiroshige senjafuda depicting an exchange meeting in 1842. One of the hanging banners ironically states "Graffiti strictly forbidden".

The later style senjafuda are called kokan nosatsu and they originated around Japan's Edo period, 1603 to 1868. They came about because during the beginning of the Edo period, the pilgrimages to shrines gained popularity and started what is known as senjamairi which literally means a thousand shrine visits for good luck. Kokan nosatsu senjafuda are a lot more colorful and have rich patterns and designs. They were used as novelty items and more like trading cards or the business cards of today. Like most all things during the Edo period, they were regulated. Depending on your class and order in society, they could not contain too many colors if you were not upper class. Collectors who enjoyed the many designs and colors of senjafuda would meet to exchange with one another. First the meetings took place at private homes and then later were arranged for public places like restaurants and expensive tea houses. According to Kiritani's Vanishing Japan the oldest surviving invitation card to a senjafuda meeting dates back to 1799.[1] The government found out about the meetings and enforced law upon them. This did not stop the meetings from taking place, and they continue to this day, collectors and aficionados alike meet to share and trade their own designs as well as admire others.

U.S. collector and Japanese anthropologist Frederick Starr was a turn-of-the-century collector and avid participant in senjafuda- or nōsatsu-kai (votive slip exchange clubs), so much so that he was given the name Dr. Ofuda. He collected tens of thousands of slips, and a fellow collector and popular art enthusiast, Gertrude Bass Warner, purchased much of his collection. It currently resides at the University of Oregon Knight Library Special Collections & University Archives, part of the Gertrude Bass Warner Collection, and examples are viewable online at UO Oregon Digital.[2][3]

Senjafuda used to be made from rice paper with ink called sumi. As for the paste, they used a rice mush. The pilgrims used to carry walking staffs for their long journeys, which doubled as an applicator for senjafuda. They applied the paste with something called meotobake, two brushes about 30 degrees apart with a clip on the other side of the brushes. This is how they were able to paste the senjafuda in out of reach areas, leaving others to wonder exactly how they got up there.

Now senjafuda are made from printed paper and are rarely made traditional by wood block prints or ukiyo-e. They do make wooden slat senjafuda which are worn as a necklace or used for key chain and cell phone ordainments. The ones made from paper are pre-printed with common names and there are also machines that you can make custom senjafuda with adhesive backings.

Some famous producers of senjafuda are Hiroshige, Eisen, Kunisada, Kuniyoshi. They mainly produced senjafuda for collectors because the process of ukiyoe printing is very expensive. Senrei Sekioka was one of the foremost Japanese experts of Senjafuda history. Iseman and Frederick Starr were important members of the nosatsu-kai during the Meiji and Taisho eras.

Senjafuda are also sold as stickers which do not require separate paste. As stickers they are also placed in books and on personal items for identification and decoration. A common criticism of the sticker version of senjafuda is that they are more difficult to peel off than their original pasted ancestors and thus can disfigure the underlying buildings when removed.

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  Nōsatsu, Shōki the Demon Queller
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  Masked senjafuda collector tossing slips into the air
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  Fox hairdressers
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  A stone fox statue in front of a series of shrine gates at Anamori Inari, Tokyo
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  Tengu Kōhei with a box for his senjafuda and pole-mounted brushes used for pasting

• Gordenker, Alice, "So, What the Heck is That? Shrine tags", Japan Times, 18 November 2010, p. 13.

• Ofuda

Media related to Senjafuda at Wikimedia Commons

• World of Senjafuda University of Oregon
• Gallery of senjafuda Christenson Collection of Miniature Japanese Woodblock Prints