What does お守り Omamori mean?

An omamori is a protective amulet or charm. The word identifies the object and its protective association, not evidence that a supernatural effect occurs.

The protective word

お守り is read omamori and can also be written 御守. Wiktionary explains the formation as the honorific prefix o- plus mamori, from mamoru, to protect or watch over. 守 supplies that protective sense. The prefix is part of the established name; the term is not an insult or a command.

Carrying rather than enshrining

Jinja Honcho distinguishes an omamori carried with a person from an ofuda placed in a household shrine. It explains both within its religious understanding of divine protection. Reporting that teaching requires attribution: this is what the association says the objects are for.

The same page discusses renewal and permits continuing to carry an omamori until the associated wish is fulfilled. It also addresses the concern that multiple charms could cause conflict between deities, rejecting that concern within its account of how the deities cooperate. These are details of a named religious source, not rules inferred from an anime scene.

Object, belief and story

A fictional amulet can have several kinds of significance. Its owner may value the protection associated with it, the person who gave it, or both. These are possibilities for interpretation; establishing any one of them requires the actual scene.

The same limit applies when a fantasy gives an amulet a visible effect. That is a fact about the fiction, not a new everyday definition of omamori. Conversely, an ordinary-looking gift need not be dismissed as meaningless because no effect is shown.

The kami entry gives related vocabulary for the religious context. Keeping the object, the source's belief and the story's events distinct allows each to be described accurately.