What's the Significance of owls in Japanese culture?

Owls have been associated with magic, wisdom and heightened senses throughout history from ancient Greece to Asia and America. Plains Indians wore owl feathers to protect themselves from evil spirits, and in middle eastern cultures the owl was seen as a sacred guardian of the afterlife.

In Greek mythology the owl was attributed to Athena, the goddess of wisdom, and as the symbol was used on Greek coins owls also became associated with wealth. However in medieval Europe owls had a bad name; a symbol of witchcraft involved in the secret powers of the night, which is in sharp contrast to the symbol of knowledge and education that we commonly associate the owl with today.

In modern Japanese culture owls are still quite significant as many Japanese people commonly carry an owl charm, but what does it symbolize?

If you walk around the shops or find your self on the subway in Japan you'll often come across little cute plastic owl cell phone charm dangles, owl stickers & phone covers, wooden figures and owl toys in all shapes and sizes. Owls er popular, just like Hello Kitty & Rilakkuma but for a different reason though; owls symbolize luck & protects one from suffering.

The reason can be found in the Japanese name for owl Fukuro フクロウ (梟）which can be written in different sets of characters. One with the meaning of Luck (福 fuku, luck; 来ku, to come ;郎 ro suffix used in boys' names) and the other as protection from hardship (不 fu, no, 苦労 kurou suffering/hardship).

With this play on words owls have been given different attributions and have become popular as engimono (縁起物) Japanese for lucky charms. Some people believe that different colours and owl shapes have influence on the type of power and luck, hence an enourmous variety of owl merchandise & souvenirs can be found in modern Japan.

Well, owls aren't just for luck in Japan. In different parts of the country a variety of attributions have been given to owls, mainly as a guiding bird, a bird which could predict the weather, but those original folk tales seems to have gradually vanished. Since the Meiji restoration in 1868 where Japan opened its doors to the West, the image of the owl has also changed, and the view on owls as a symbol of wisdom & education became prominent.

Today beliefs of lucky charms for fortune & protection of hardship, as well as owls as a symbol of knowledge seem to coexist in an unusual and interesting mix, just like the new and old Japan I guess...all whilst an increasing amount of cute and happy owl designs hit the market!