I take part in two major purification rites each year: the Nagoshi no Ōharae in summer and the Toshikoshi no Ōharae at the end of the year.
At the shrine, I walk through a large ring of grass and offer a small paper figure called katashiro, shaped like a human body.
On the figure, I write my name and birthdate.
Then I breathe onto it, gently rub it over my body, and symbolically transfer any impurities into it.
The figure is then entrusted to the shrine, where the priest conducts a purification rite.
Through this, the impurities that have accumulated in the unseen world are also quietly removed from this one.
Just by living, we gather impurities without realizing it.
Perhaps I’ve stepped on a tiny insect while walking.
Or maybe I’ve made someone uncomfortable, even without meaning to.
In Shinto, such invisible build-up is called kegare.
It’s not a sin to be punished, but something to be purified.
To purify is not to judge.
It’s a quiet resetting, a gentle restoration.
I believe we each have not only a visible body in this world,
but also an unseen self that exists in the world we cannot see.
And purification is a way of tending to that unseen body.
Incidentally, it’s now common to see katashiro not just for people,
but also for pets and even vehicles.
I always prepare one for my car, writing the license plate number,
and include it in the purification ritual.
The figures are then burned or dissolved in water—
quietly disappearing from this world.
Through that act, I feel a gentle rebalancing with the invisible.
That, to me, is what purification means.
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