Tenkirin (天気輪)

Tenkirin (also called tenkibashira or goshouguruma) is a poll made with stone or wood having a wheel built in it which is placed at the entrance of a temple or a graveyard. Rotating the wheel, is used to call to the dead, to tell fortune or weather as well as to use for hyakudo-mairi (one hundred prayer trips). The origin of tenkirin was the maniguruma (prayer wheel) of Tibet and later it changed to the distinct shape of Japan. "Tenkirin" is also an another name of a weather phenomena called "sun pillar."

[Original Japanese]