Kukurizaru represent bound monkeys, tied at the feet & hands.Outside the home they act as protective talismans for those within, but at Yasaka Kōshin-dō (八坂庚申堂) they are also made as offerings to the blue guardian deity Shōmen Kongō (青面金剛).Yasaka Kōshin-dō, founded in 887, is centre for the Kōshin faith. Originally a folk religion, practitioners of Kōshin-shinkō believe that for a wish to come true it is necessary to sacrifice 1 desire. Desires are thus symbolically bound up as a kukurizaru.