Story 80
The Fate of a Woman Who Picked Up “Bad Luck”
When I went to a large shrine in Kyushu—
It was close to where I was living at the time, so I went there for “yakubarai” (a ritual for warding off misfortune).
A friend had told me that the shrine was famous for yakubarai…
There, I found ten thousand yen (about $90).
Later, I learned that it had been deliberately dropped by someone as part of the ritual.
I’m not entirely sure if “yakubarai” is the correct term, but from what I was told, money is intentionally left for someone to find so that the misfortune is transferred to the person who picks it up.
At that time, I had just graduated from university but my job hunting wasn’t going well, and I was completely broke, so I happily picked up the fallen ten thousand yen.
“This will cover my food expenses for a while,” I thought.
I even felt that my luck had started to turn the moment I came for yakubarai.
But, that was actually the beginning of my misfortune.
The first misfortune happened on my way home.
What happened was, on the train I was taking home, I witnessed a person being hit in a suicide/accident incident.
The face of the person being run over traumatized me so much that I could never get on a train again.
Then, within three months, I suffered two misfortunes in my family, got hit by a car while riding my bicycle and broke my leg, tripped and fell for no reason, and even fell for a phishing scam that made me lose forty thousand yen…
In just three months, my life had been dragged from the depths of despair to an even deeper bottom.
One day, I visited the home of the friend who had told me about the shrine.
Actually, it wasn’t just a casual visit—I was called over because they said, “I need to talk to you.”
The moment I arrived, my friend said to me:
“Didn’t you pick up money at the shrine?”
Honestly, I was startled.
I felt guilty because technically, any money you find should be handed over to the shrine office or a police box, but I had kept it. I hung my head and stayed silent.
“You did pick it up, didn’t you?”
I could only nod.
It was then that I realized the money had been intentionally dropped by someone for yakubarai.
And I realized that by picking it up, I had taken on the person’s misfortune.
Following my friend’s advice, the next day I went to the shrine and scattered ten one-thousand-yen bills—the little money I had left.
To pass the “bad luck” that had attached to me onto someone else…
