Hamaya: the shrine arrow that wards off the year's misfortune

Hamaya is a protective object from the religious world of Japan. It is an arrow handed out at shrines, above all in the period around the new year.

The name Hamaya points to the arrow’s task. It means something like demon-breaking or misfortune-breaking arrow. The Hamaya is thus an arrow set against misfortune.

The Hamaya belongs to Shinto, the native religion of Japan, but it is also found at Buddhist temples. It is part of the protective practice that intensifies around the turn of the year.

Unlike an ordinary arrow, the Hamaya is not meant to be shot. It usually has no sharp point and is kept in the home rather than fired.

In religious studies, the Hamaya is a good example of a protective sign that has emerged from a custom. From an arrow shooting at New Year arose an arrow handed out as a protective object.

This page treats the Hamaya as a protective sign. Alongside the fixed Ofuda and the portable Omamori, it belongs to the protective objects that a Japanese shrine hands out.

The Hamaya has the form of an arrow. It consists of a straight shaft that carries fletching at the rear end.

Unlike an arrow for hunting or combat, the Hamaya has no sharp, penetrating point. Its front end is often blunt or plainly shaped, for the arrow is not meant to be shot.

The fletching at the rear end is often carefully worked. It gives the Hamaya its characteristic appearance and makes it recognizable at first glance as an arrow.

The Hamaya is frequently adorned. Small pendants may be attached to it, a painted tablet, a little bell or an image of the animal assigned to the coming year.

Sometimes the Hamaya is handed out together with a small bow. Arrow and bow then form a pair that is kept together.

The form of the Hamaya is thus that of an arrow, yet an arrow that has become a sign. It retains the shape of the weapon but is fashioned as an object of protection and adornment, not as an actual projectile.

The protective meaning of the Hamaya rests on the image of the arrow. The arrow is a weapon, a means of defense and of striking from a distance.

This image is transferred to misfortune. The Hamaya is, as it were, the weapon directed against misfortune and against harmful powers. Its name, the demon-breaking arrow, expresses this directly.

The arrow strikes its target from afar, before it draws near. In this sense the Hamaya is meant to strike and break misfortune before it reaches the home and its inhabitants.

The Hamaya is not actually shot. Its protection lies not in a real shot but in the image it embodies. Through its presence alone the arrow acts as a sign of defense.

The Hamaya thus belongs to the protective signs that work through the image of a weapon. Like a sword or a trident in other cultures, the arrow here is the symbol of defensive, warding power.

The Hamaya therefore protects by holding misfortune in check with the image of a weapon. It is the symbolic answer to threat, an arrow set against misfortune.

The Hamaya is closely bound up with the Japanese New Year. In the period around the turn of the year it is handed out at the shrines.

New Year is a particularly significant transition in Japan. With the old year, misfortune is to be left behind; with the new year, protection and good fortune are to begin.

In the first days of the year many people visit a shrine. This New Year visit is a widespread custom, and on this occasion a Hamaya is often acquired.

The Hamaya is meant to protect throughout the whole coming year. It is fetched at the very start of the year so that the protection is given from the outset.

The Hamaya thus fits into the protective practice of the turn of the year. During this time the Ofuda and Omamori are also renewed, the Shimenawa is hung on the doors and further customs are observed.

Within this practice the Hamaya is the arrow that is meant to ward off the misfortune of the coming year. It thereby belongs to the signs with which people in Japan place the new year under protection.

The Hamaya goes back to an older custom. It was a custom of archery connected with the New Year.

In earlier times a ritual archery was held at shrines at New Year. Arrows were shot at a target, and this shooting was connected with the idea of warding off misfortune for the coming year.

A custom in which boys received a small bow and arrows as a New Year gift also belongs to this context. Bow and arrows counted as signs of protection and of good growth.

From these customs the Hamaya developed over time into a protective object in its own right. The arrow was, as it were, detached from the shooting and turned into a sign kept in the home.

The arrow thereby changed. From a projectile that was actually shot it became a symbol that works through its presence. The Hamaya kept its form but gave up its actual use as a weapon.

This development is instructive. It shows how an action, the ritual shooting, can become an object that has, as it were, absorbed that action into itself and stands on its own as a protective sign.

After the Hamaya has been acquired at the shrine, it finds its place in the home. There it is meant to be effective throughout the year.

The Hamaya is often kept at the household altar, the kamidana. There it stands beside the Ofuda and is part of the domestic sphere of veneration and protection.

Where there is no kamidana, the Hamaya is placed at a suitable, respectable spot in the home. It should be in a worthy place that lies above head height.

The arrow is not hidden but kept in view. As a sign of defense it should be, as it were, at the ready and guard the home against the year’s misfortune.

Sometimes the Hamaya is turned in a particular direction, for instance toward where, by old belief, misfortune is to be expected. The arrow is then, as it were, set against the misfortune.

In the home the Hamaya thus fulfills its task. It is the arrow that is meant to ward off misfortune over the course of the year, and its fixed place in the home makes it a constant sign of protection.

Like the Ofuda, the Hamaya is not kept permanently either. At the turn of the year it is renewed.

The Hamaya counts as protection for a particular year. With the close of that year its task is fulfilled. For the new year a new Hamaya is fetched.

The old Hamaya is brought back to the shrine. There it is treated in a respectful manner and often burned in a ritual fire together with other returned protective objects.

This burning is not a careless discarding. It is the fitting way to part from a protective object that has done its service. The fire dissolves the Hamaya, as it were, with dignity.

The thought behind it is the same as with the Ofuda. The protective power is held to be bound to time. A new Hamaya brings fresh, undiminished protection for the new year.

The yearly renewal makes the Hamaya a sign of a new beginning. With each new year comes a new arrow, and with it the warding off of misfortune begins, as it were, anew.

The Hamaya can be viewed in the larger context of weapon signs. The weapon as a protective sign is known in many cultures.

In numerous traditions a weapon becomes a sign of defense. The sword, the spear, the trident or indeed the arrow stand for the defensive power that confronts misfortune.

The arrow in particular is associated with striking from a distance. It can reach its target before it draws near. For this reason it is suited as an image for a defense that breaks misfortune already in its approach.

In some traditions arrows are moreover connected with purification and with driving off evil. The sound of a shot arrow was held in some places to drive away misfortune.

The Hamaya belongs to this group of weapon signs. It is the Japanese form of the arrow as a protective sign, connected with the New Year and with warding off misfortune for the coming year.

What is special about the Hamaya is this binding to the turn of the year. It is not an arrow for every occasion but the arrow of the new year, which takes on protection for a precisely defined span of time.

The Hamaya is a widespread protective object in present-day Japan. In the period around New Year it is handed out at many shrines and temples.

For many people the New Year visit to the shrine is a firm custom. Acquiring a Hamaya on this occasion is widespread, even among people who are not closely bound to Shinto.

The Hamaya is frequently adapted to the adornment of the coming year. It often carries an image of the animal assigned to the new year in the East Asian zodiac and is thus a sign of precisely that one year.

For many people the Hamaya today is less the expression of a strictly considered belief than a part of a cultivated tradition. It belongs to New Year like other customs of this time.

A factual account names the Hamaya as what it is, a shrine arrow meant to ward off the misfortune of the coming year in a symbolic sense. An effect beyond this cannot be demonstrated.

The Hamaya thus remains a living sign of Japanese popular belief. In it are joined the image of the arrow as a weapon against misfortune, the significance of the turn of the year and the wish to place the new year under protection.