Raiteijou

Raiteijou is a staff with magical powers that is owned by Minamoto Kou.

Appearance
Kou's raiteijou is a long golden staff with two ends; a spiky end, and a rounded end with metal rings and a six-pointed star.

The rounded end seems to resemble a Khakkhara, which is a pewter staff traditionally carried by Buddhist monks. His raiteijou's rounded end also has a six-pointed star, which is the Kagome Crest. The six-pointed star is also commonly associated with the Star of David in the west. Hachiman, a divine god of archery and war in Japanese Shinto and Buddhist religion, is also often seen with this type of weapon. Hachiman was honored and worshipped by the Minamoto clan during the age of the samurai, and is also claimed to be the ancestor of Minamoto no Yoritomo.

In chapter 3 Hanako sealed Kou's raiteijou, which decreased it's power greatly. The rounded end now has a white seal on top of the six-pointed star with red Japanese letters that spell "封" which means "seal" when translated to English.

History
Kou's raiteijou has been given to him in order to exorcise supernaturals. However, Kou isn't able to use his full powers with the staff without hurting himself and causing burn damage to his hands. Despite this, he tries to exorcise Hanako, and fails. Hanako seals up his raiteijou, decreasing it's power significantly.

After this, Kou still continues to carry it around with him everywhere. It seems to have some power, but is significantly weaker than before. During the Picture Perfect Arc, the raiteijou is back to full power briefly.

Trivia

 * Kou almost always fights with the spiky end of his raiteijou.
 * The only time he's seen fighting with the rounded end is in Chapter 48, when he's fighting against Mitsuba. It's possible he's doing this to prevent himself from hurting Mitsuba too badly.