Talismans of China and Japan
Coins on red cord, mirrors above the door, a cat with a raised paw and a doll that always gets up: the everyday talismans of China and Japan.
China and Japan share a long conversation about luck, blessing and protection, carried on through coins, mirrors, cats, shrine charms and dolls. Many of these talismans are cheerful, everyday objects, found by shop tills, above front doors and in schoolbags.
Two traditions, many connections
Chinese ideas travelled to Japan over many centuries, together with writing, Buddhism and the cosmology of yin and yang. Japan then developed its own forms, shaped by Shinto, the worship of the kami, and by Buddhist temples. The result is two distinct traditions that still recognise each other’s symbols.
In China, good fortune is often expressed through wordplay. The word for bat sounds like the word for fortune, so bats appear on porcelain and embroidery, and the character fu is hung upside down at New Year because the word for upside down sounds like the word for arrive. Colours, numbers and pictures join in: red for joy, eight for prosperity, peaches for long life.
In Japan, lucky objects are known as engimono, and many are bought at shrines, temples and seasonal fairs. They often have a natural lifespan: received at New Year, kept for a year and then returned with thanks to be ceremonially burned.
In China and Japan, good fortune is often a matter of wordplay, colour and a fresh start each New Year.
Materials and craft
Bronze casting gave China its coins and mirrors, and both became talismans in their own right. Ancient bronze mirrors were often decorated on the back with cosmic designs and auspicious inscriptions, and mirrors in general were believed to reveal and repel what is harmful. Red silk cord, paper cut-outs, jade and lacquer are other favourite materials.
Japanese talismans lean towards paper, wood, cloth and clay. Omamori are sewn from brocade, daruma are made of papier-mâché, and beckoning cats are moulded in ceramic, a craft associated with pottery towns such as Tokoname. Seasonal markets keep these crafts alive.
Chinese talismans
Chinese lucky coins take their shape from the round bronze coins with a square hole that the state of Qin used before unification and made standard across China in 221 BCE. The round edge is often linked with heaven and the square hole with earth. From the Han dynasty onwards charm coins were cast purely for luck, with auspicious words and pictures in place of a value.
The bagua mirror joins two ideas: the protective mirror and the , the eight trigrams of the I Ching, each made of three broken or unbroken lines. Hung outside above the front door, especially in southern China and Hong Kong, it is believed to turn harmful influences away. It belongs to folk feng shui and always faces outwards, so it is considerate to keep it from pointing straight at a neighbour.
Japanese talismans
The Maneki-neko, or beckoning cat, became popular in Edo, today’s Tokyo, during the nineteenth century. A print by Utagawa Hiroshige from 1852 includes one, and the Asakusa district, where such figures were made, is often named as its home. Today it sits by tills across East Asia, a sign of welcome explored further on our page about prosperity.
Omamori are amulets from Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples: a small brocade pouch holding a slip of paper or wood inscribed with a prayer or sacred name. There are omamori for safe travel, study, business, family and love. Because they are blessed objects, they are kept closed and returned after about a year rather than thrown away. Larger of paper or wood are kept at home on the household shrine or above the door.
The Daruma doll is modelled on Bodhidharma, remembered as the founder of Zen. Its weighted round body rolls back upright when pushed over, so it stands for perseverance, and its blank eyes are painted in one at a time as a goal is set and reached. Takasaki, home of the Shorinzan Daruma-ji temple, is the town most famous for making them.
Living traditions
These objects remain part of everyday life. Families hang red decorations and new charms at Lunar New Year, Japanese students carry omamori into exams, and shopkeepers from Tokyo to Singapore keep a beckoning cat by the till. Many customs depend on renewal, an idea our guide to caring for your talisman looks at more closely.
Some motifs reached East Asia from further west. The endless knot of Buddhism came with the faith from India and the Himalaya and became a much-loved part of Chinese decorative knotting, a story told among the talismans of India and the Himalaya.
taliaris describes beliefs and customs; it makes no claim that a talisman has an effect.