My first fortune slip said "small blessing" (shokichi) but read like bad luck. So I drew again for the first time in my life, and got another poem that some temples rank as bad luck. Here is what No. 58 and No. 15 actually say, how the luck grades work, and why the two slips together turned out to be oddly good life advice.
I walked to Toyokawa Inari in the rain, and the path to the temple was almost empty. Wet stone, a huge torii gate, a grey sky, total quiet. It felt less like a tourist spot and more like a doorway that might quietly take you somewhere else.
What followed was a very cheap bit of soul-searching: I guarded my only ¥500 coin, prayed without leaving an offering, paid ¥100 for an omikuji, got roasted by it, paid another ¥100 to try again, and ended up wondering whether omikuji are less about predicting the future and more like a random page torn from an old book of life advice.
One quick fact first: Toyokawa Inari's formal name is Toyokawakaku Myogonji. Despite "Inari" in the name and the torii gates, it is a Soto Zen Buddhist temple, not a Shinto shrine.[4]
1. In the rain, Toyokawa Inari felt like a door to another world
Rain turns the volume down. Almost nobody was around. The wet stones reflected the dull sky, and the big torii framed an empty road.
"There's nobody here. This is exactly where something carries you off to the other side."
It was spooky in a good way. That feeling of stepping out of normal life mattered later: a ¥100 paper slip felt less like a vending-machine prize and more like something worth thinking about.
2. Only a ¥500 coin: praying can cost ¥0, the omikuji cost ¥100
The only coin I had was ¥500. Dropping the whole thing in the offering box felt like a lot, so right in front of the main hall my inner accountant nearly vetoed praying altogether.
But Toyokawa Inari's official FAQ says anyone may come in and pray freely while the gates are open.[1] An offering is not an entry fee. Formal prayer ceremonies held by the temple are a separate thing, with their own suggested fee listed in the official guide.[3]
So praying with a ¥0 offering is perfectly fine.
"If I pray for free, will my wish come true backwards? Will something collect me on the way out?" No such shady "free plan with a catch" appears anywhere in the official guidance.
Praying: ¥0. Fortune slip lucky dip: ¥100.
3. First draw: No. 58, small blessing, with a nice label and harsh words
The first slip was Toyokawa No. 58, small blessing (小吉).
The poem had four lines:
有径江海隔
車行峻嶺危
亦防多進退
猶恐小人虧
Roughly: there is a road, but rivers and seas cut it off; it is as risky as driving a cart over steep mountains; be careful whether you move forward or back; and watch out for people who might harm you.
The everyday advice was just as tough: lots of worry and hardship, be patient, the person you are waiting for will be late, lost things are hard to find, buying and selling go badly, avoid fights, don't rush big changes, and start with small goals instead of big dreams.
The label said small blessing. The text read like a boss fight.
Going by feel alone, it seemed like the second-worst result possible.
4. Is small blessing really the second-best grade? The Tokyo branch's order may not apply here
A visitor's report on a sign at Toyokawa Inari's Tokyo branch (Tokyo Betsuin) lists the order as great blessing → small blessing → blessing → half blessing → future blessing → future small blessing → bad luck.[6] In that system, small blessing is second from the top.
But you can't just copy that order onto the paper slips at the main temple in Toyokawa city. The main temple's official website does not publish a full table saying "these are all 7 grades, in this order" for the slips I drew. Other visitors also report seeing different grade names on a different style of omikuji.
So the careful answer is: a Toyokawa ranking that puts small blessing very high does exist, but I can't confirm that this main-temple slip is definitely second out of every possible grade.
I thought I had cracked the system. I had actually been reading the rulebook from a different branch. Even omikuji differ from place to place.
5. The same No. 58 is "bad luck" at other temples: same old poem, local labels
The four lines of No. 58 aren't unique to Toyokawa. Old numbered fortune poems have been passed down through the "hundred lots of Ganzan Daishi" and Kannon fortune traditions. Japan's National Diet Library reference database points to a source that covers poems No. 1–100 with their meanings and luck ratings.[8]
The same core poem for No. 58 is labelled bad luck (凶) in material about other temples, such as Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto.[9] Meanwhile, the detailed notes on things like the person you are waiting for, travel and lost items don't match exactly from temple to temple.
Put simply:
- the old numbered poem = the case number everyone shares
- great blessing, small blessing, bad luck = the label each temple puts on top
- waiting person, buying and selling, and so on = each temple's own wording
So "same content, different label" is half right. The old core is shared, while the luck label and the explanations are adapted locally.
6. "I'm not accepting a bad ending!" My first-ever redraw
No. 58 didn't sit right with me, so I tried something I had never done: drawing a second omikuji.
"I'm not accepting a bad ending!"
With nobody around, I went for the obviously biggest fortune box there.
The temple's official grounds guide confirms there is an omikuji hall next to the main hall.[2] A 2026 visitor report says it has several boxes, with a large six-sided one in the middle.[7] The number and shape of the boxes come from a visitor's account, not from the temple, so take them as that.
I shook the giant box and got Toyokawa No. 15, blessing (吉).
7. No. 15, blessing: a lower label, but kinder advice
The poem for No. 15:
年乖数亦孤
久病未能蘇
岸危舟未発
龍臥失明珠
Not exactly cheerful either: bad timing and loneliness, a long illness that won't lift, a boat that can't leave a dangerous shore, and a dragon lying there after losing its precious pearl.
Historical records from the same tradition list No. 15 as bad luck in some versions.[10] I may have escaped one traditionally unlucky poem only to land on another.
But Toyokawa's Japanese advice on this slip was much more helpful than the first: after hardship you learn what happiness is; if you live simply and within your means, good fortune that fits your life will come; happy news comes later; the person you're waiting for will be late; wait for the right time; help from others will move your wishes forward.
"Live simply," right after I refused to give up my ¥500 coin.
Toyokawa Inari: "Fine, keeping the ¥500 was a good call. You still have to work hard."
The poem itself still came from the bad-luck family, but the explanation at the end was a lot easier to live with.
8. Does drawing twice make it more accurate? Read them as advice, not prophecy
There is no scientific evidence that drawing two omikuji makes a prediction more accurate. In math, if you already knew that two separate predictors each did better than random guessing, you could trust them more when they agreed. Nobody has shown that omikuji meet that condition.
So I read the two slips not as a vote on the future, but as two sets of things to think about. Advice that shows up on both becomes a strong question. Advice that clashes counts as "no agreement."
| Topic | No. 58 | No. 15 | How to use both |
|---|---|---|---|
| Timing | Be patient, don't rush | Wait for the right time | Don't make a big rushed bet |
| Scale | Grow from small things | Live simply, within your means | Try it small, then grow it |
| Money | Careful with buying and selling | Be frugal | Keep some savings; be careful with big gambles |
| Person you're waiting for | Late | Late | A delay isn't automatically a failure |
| Health | Talks about recovering | Rest and wait | Don't diagnose from a fortune; rest and see a doctor if needed |
| Fights | Avoid them | Wait for the right moment | Don't go to all-out war right away |
| People | Watch out for harmful people | Accept help | Don't isolate yourself; pick who you lean on |
| Lost items | Hard to find | Fairly hopeful | They disagree: no agreement |
| Buying and shopping | Bad | Partly good | They disagree: no agreement |
| Travel | Mentioned on one slip | No strong match | Only one vote: a weak hint |
What was left at the core: "Don't get knocked out of the game. Keep something in reserve, don't rush, build up in small steps."
9. Think of omikuji as a random page from a life guidebook, and they make sense
If an omikuji is a ¥100 slip that predicts the future, the only question is whether it comes true. But if it's a system that splits old life wisdom and warnings into many cases and hands you one at random, its job changes.
Fortune box = a lucky dip of life lessons Number = which case you got Poem = the general principle Waiting person, lost items, buying and selling, fights = how it applies to each part of life Luck grade = the eye-catching label on top
The Association of Shinto Shrines also says, about omikuji in general, that you shouldn't just look at the good or bad label, but read the contents as a guide and compare them with how you live.[5] Toyokawa Inari is a Buddhist temple, so this isn't its teaching, just general background on omikuji culture.
Instead of "I got bad luck, it's over," it's more useful to turn the slip into what to avoid, what to keep doing, and what to try on a small scale.
10. Praying in a mysterious place is a great way to start thinking about yourself
To pray, you first have to decide what to ask for. What do you want? Why? What are you afraid of? What matters most?
That alone gets you putting your goals and values into words. Toyokawa Inari's guide to formal prayer ceremonies also accepts several kinds of wishes but recommends focusing your effort on one.[3]
Then a piece of writing you didn't choose arrives. "Is this 'don't rush' about that thing? Is 'ask for help' about this?" You start searching through your own life.
Of course, there's a catch. People tend to feel that vague, general statements were written especially for them; psychologists call this the Barnum effect.[13] Feeling that a fortune "gets you" doesn't mean it's supernaturally right.
Still, as a way into self-reflection it's interesting. A research review on awe, that feeling of being in front of something vast, discusses its link with seeing things from a wider, less self-centred angle.[11] A combined analysis of many studies found small to moderate benefits from looking back on stressful events as if from a little distance, while also noting the evidence is uncertain.[12] And making "if X happens, I'll do Y" plans had a medium to large effect on reaching goals in a classic combined analysis of studies.[14]
So it helps to see it like this:
Praying = putting your wants and values into words Omikuji = adding a point of view you didn't pick "Is this about that?" = searching your own life Reflection = comparing where you are with where you want to be Lesson = turning it into a rule for your next decision
Rain, old buildings, torii gates, silence, the ritual, the act of speaking to gods and buddhas. It gives you a ready-made way in that a blank notebook doesn't. You borrow a sacred setting from outside yourself to ask yourself better questions.
11. The answer: not predicting the future, but reminding you how not to wreck your life
I walked there in the rain, got beaten up by No. 58, yelled "I'm not accepting a bad ending!", redrew from the giant box, and No. 15 told me, basically, "it'll be hard; live simply."
What the two slips left me with wasn't a flashy winning strategy.
Don't bet too big. Don't rush. Keep something in reserve. Try things small. Don't let fights escalate in a hurry. Look after your health. Lean on people when you need to.
That's not a guaranteed way to win. But as a way to manage risk so life doesn't knock you out, it's surprisingly solid.
Whether omikuji really know the future is a separate question. But if ¥100 makes you stop and ask "what am I actually doing right now?", it's a pretty great random pack of life lessons from the gods and buddhas.
And after opening two packs, the shared themes were "live simply," "don't rush" and "build up in small steps."
By not dropping my ¥500 coin in the offering box, I had apparently answered the first question correctly before I even started.
- Toyokawa Inari official FAQ
- Toyokawa Inari grounds guide
- Toyokawa Inari formal prayer flow
- Toyokawa Inari official site
- Association of Shinto Shrines: omikuji
- Visitor report on the omikuji ranking at Toyokawa Inari Tokyo Betsuin
- 2026 visitor report on the large omikuji box at the main temple
- National Diet Library Collaborative Reference Database: Ganzan Daishi omikuji book
- Unofficial guide to Kiyomizu-dera No. 58
- Bunkyo City cultural-property material (Ganzan Daishi hundred lots)
- Nature Reviews Psychology: awe review
- PubMed: self-distancing meta-analysis
- APA Dictionary: Barnum effect
- Gollwitzer & Sheeran: implementation-intention meta-analysis
