The omamori is a portable protective amulet sold at shrines and temples that carries the protection of the kami or the buddha to its bearer.
The pouch and its contents
An omamori typically takes the form of a small brocade pouch containing a slip of paper or wood inscribed with a name or a prayer, sealed and not to be opened, and it is carried on the person, attached to a bag, a phone or a car, to bring the protection of the enshrined deity to its holder. Omamori are offered for particular purposes, safety in traffic, success in study, health, safe childbirth, good fortune in love, so a worshipper chooses the one suited to the need, and the object is among the most common things bought at a shrine or temple.
Renewed each year
An omamori is understood to lose its potency over time and, by custom, is returned to the shrine after about a year, often at the new year, to be respectfully burned, and a fresh one obtained, so the amulet belongs to an annual cycle of renewal rather than being kept indefinitely. That the same object is offered at both Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples reflects the long intertwining of the two traditions in Japan, and the omamori is carried by many with little concern for the distinction. It is a small, sealed, portable bearer of blessing, one of the most familiar objects of Japanese religious life and one of the ordinary ways the protection of the sacred is carried into daily activity.