CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Hundreds of people visited the Izuma Taishakyo Mission of Hawaii shrine in Chinatown starting at midnight on New Year's Eve to offer prayers of thanks for blessings received in the year and to get blessings for the new year. Among the visitors yesterday was Kay Kondo, right, who purchased a good luck amulet for her home.

New Year’s ritual
blesses many

Hundreds visit isle Shinto shrines
to seek good fortune in 2002

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By Lisa Asato
lasato@starbulletin

Shannon Fukata and his grandmother took turns yesterday pouring clear, running water over each other's hands as part of "hatsumoude," the traditional New Year's Day cleansing visit to Shinto shrines.

Three generations of Fukatas went to several shrines yesterday, including the Izumo Taishakyo Mission of Hawaii, to ask for blessings and good fortune in 2002.

"(I came) just to get good luck for the year, scholastically and stuff," said Shannon Fukata, 13, who was with his father, grandfather and 11-year-old sister Lindsay.

The Fukatas of Manoa were among hundreds since midnight who visited the Chinatown shrine where the New Year's ritual has continued for nearly a century, said Richard Miyao, executive director of Izumo Taishakyo.

Miyao said about 10,000 people were expected to come by the end of the week, seeking "to wipe one's slate clean and start anew, to get the blessing for the year."

People may make the visit up to a month later since in earlier years the lunar calendar called for New Year's celebrations in late January or early February, Miyao said.

Dick and Betty Fujiwara were leaving the shrine around noon with their purchases of "ofuda," a protective talisman for homes and businesses, and "omamori" for the protection of their cars and health. They have visited the shrine for 34 years, following a tradition passed through generations.

"We hope we have the best year next year -- good health, everybody safe -- hopefully this will last the whole year until we come back," Betty Fujiwara said.

She said last year was a good year, and they were hoping to "renew those good fortunes we had so far."

Miyao described early-morning crowds yesterday as a "huge, mob-like people standing in line at a movie theater," and attributed it in part to the Sept. 11 attacks.

"After the 11th, maybe more people come (hoping) for the best," he said.

The visit to the shrine encompasses several symbolic steps. It starts by passing under the entrance gate, or "torii," then cleansing oneself spiritually by washing one's hands with water flowing from a tap in a basin.

At the top of the steps leading into the shrine, visitors drop monetary offerings in a wooden box and ring a bell called a "shimenawa," which calls the gods for prayer. While visitors pray, a priest waves a wooden wand, or "gohei," with white paper streamers over their bowed heads, signifying purification and blessing.

Good luck charms also are involved. "The old one burned, the new one purchased," Miyao said.

A sake communion follows.

Miyao said many people who come for the blessing are seen only once a year, but that's OK so long as the ritual is "tainted with religious aspect." He said the New Year's visit to the shrine remains an "integrated part of family tradition," and that many visitors are third-, fourth- and fifth-generation Japanese Americans carrying on the tradition of the issei, or first-generation Japanese.

For 86-year-old Yoshie Fukida, a New Year's visit to several Shinto shrines is a matter of necessity. "Every year I come, I go three (shrines)," she said. "My husband is in the care home so I want them to bless (him)," she said. "I pray every morning and evening."