Also called: Butsugan · Butsugansou · Buddha eye · Buddha's eye on the thumb · Eye of the Buddha

Where on the hand: On the thumb, at the first (interphalangeal) joint — the crease between the nail phalange and the second phalange. It lies in the joint crease itself, on the palm side of the thumb.

What it looks like: The joint crease splits and rebounds so that it encloses a small pointed oval, exactly like a half-closed eye, sometimes with a short line through the middle as a 'pupil'. A double butsugan shows two such eyes stacked one above the other.

One of the best-known signs in Japanese palmistry. It is read as ancestral protection — the person is said to be watched over, to escape accidents narrowly, and to be warned by hunches. It is equally strongly associated with an exceptional memory, and with intuitive or psychic sensitivity: the classic reading is someone who 'just knows' things and remembers everything.

Read with care: The name comes from the half-closed eyes of Buddhist statuary; the sign belongs to popular Japanese palmistry (widely spread by television palmists) rather than to any Buddhist scripture. It is also anatomically common in flexible thumbs, so the 'rare gift' framing should be reported as tradition.