People buy them to make a wish for traffic safety, health, babies, passing an exam,good business,and so on. Some people in Japan have charms against evils. They can be bought at shrines or temples. Some are sold at souvenir shops. There are round,square,rectangle,pentagon,eggplant shapes,and so on.
Some people ask priests at shrines to offer a special prayer.
They cost about fifty hundred yen. Inside,you can find a piece of thick paper. Sometimes, the shrine's logo is sealed on the paper. Outside on the cloth, there are names of temples woven. There are nothing else inside, other than just a piece of paper.