Families bring children aged seven, five, and three to shrines for blessing and purification. The ages correspond to critical spiritual transitions in Japanese folk belief: at three, a child could first grow hair (kamioki); at five, boys first wore hakama trousers (hakamagi); at seven, girls first tied their obi sash (obitoki). Children receive chitose-ame (thousand-year candy) in long, thin sticks symbolizing longevity, carried in bags decorated with cranes and turtles. The ritual marks the child’s graduation from the dangerous early years when infant mortality placed them between the human and spirit worlds.