Senjafuda

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Senjafuda (千社札, literally "thousand shrine tags") are stickers or scraps of paper posted on the gates of shrines and Buddhist temples in Japan. The stickers bear the name of the worshipper, and can be purchased pre-printed with common names at temples and shrines throughout Japan, as well as at stationery stores and video game centres. Senjafuda were originally made from sheets of copper, but have been made of paper since the Edo period.

[edit] Summary

A single senjafuda measures 1.6Sun (58mm) in width and 4.8 Sun (173mm) in height. This gives the senjafuda a ratio of 1:3. A frame is drawn inside this space which contains the lettering or pictures. In 1887 a measurement for this frame was also established as 48mm wide and 144mm tall.

Ordinarily, the designs were used to commemorate a visit to a temple or shrine and printed with simple monochromatic schemes, but eventually aesthetic sense gave way to colorful variations and designs. In the pleasure quarters of Kyoto, colorful designs were employed on senjafuda and used in place of traditional business cards. This variation is called "hana-meishi" which roughly translated to "flower business card." Today, the "business card" use of senjafuda is the most common.

Senjafuda were primarily printed with Edomoji, or Edo-period lettering styles, and pressed with the same traditional wooden boards used to produce ukiyo-e prints.

Stickers on shrines are often pasted in very obvious, easily seen locations, but a variation on this practice is to purposely obscure the location of the senjafuda in order to protect it from exposure to wind and rain and thus prolong its presence.

[edit] In Recent years

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.