Temples, Shrines Offer Artistic Goshuin Paper Cutouts to Boost Visitor Numbers; Seasons, Plants Used as Motifs

By Manami Nishida / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

13:54 JST, March 31, 2025

Goshuin paper cutouts offered by some shrines and temples have been gaining popularity for their artistic designs which often feature seasonal motifs.

Goshuin usually refers to a stamp given by a shrine or a temple to visitors to mark their visit. Recently, some temples and shrines have been offering visitors the stamps on elaborate paper cutouts. Some of these have gone viral and are helping to increase visitor numbers.

“It’s so beautiful that I want to show it to many people,” said a 46-year-old woman from Shiki, Saitama Prefecture. She was visiting Yushima Tenmangu shrine, which is known as a shrine for academic success, in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo, in February.

“I had heard that the shrine offers goshuin paper cutouts, so I came here. I display the cutouts I receive on a board,” she said.

For regular goshuin, a temple or shrine usually writes down the date of their visit and other information in sumi black ink and stamps a goshuin notebook that a visitor has brought with them. Goshuin paper cutouts are instead made by cutting out paper with a laser, which are then given to visitors.

Yushima Tenmangu shrine offers goshuin paper cutouts with six seasonal designs over the course of the year, featuring events such as the New Year and the Japanese plum tree festival, in addition to one available all year round.

“I hope goshuin paper cutouts will encourage people to visit the shrine more casually,” said an assistant priest of the shrine.

Ryusenji temple in Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture, is said to be one of the first temples to offer goshuin paper cutouts for its general visitors. The temple introduced them in 2018 to attract people to Kumagaya.

The temple used to issue about 30 goshuin stamps a month. However, the temple’s goshuin paper cutouts went viral after it posted them on Instagram, and now the temple issues about 10,000 of the paper cutouts a month. The design changes every three months, and some people collect each one, according to the temple.

Ninnaji temple in Kyoto, which is registered as a UNESCO World Heritage site, also started to offer goshuin paper cutouts in 2021. The number of visitors had shrunk considerably due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the temple wanted to offer special type of goshuin that had never existed before. The temple’s paper cutouts have become popular among foreign tourists for their beautiful designs.

“We make goshuin paper cutouts with designs based on the temple hall, the grounds and the seasons,” an official of the temple said.