著者

金本 伊津子 Itsuko KANAMOTO 平安女学院大学現代文化学部国際コミュニケーション学科 Department of International Communication Heian Jogakuin University

雑誌

平安女学院大学研究年報 = Heian Jogakuin University journal (ISSN:1346227X)

巻号頁・発行日

no.1, pp.73-82, 2001-03-10

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A Japanese proverb goes, "Shinin ni kuchi nashi (the dead can tell no stories)." From a rationalistic point of view, the idea that communication between the living and the dead exists is nothing but an absurd superstition. Nonetheless, some cultural devices in Japanese folk religion still survive, and are used by those who actively try to communicate with the dead. A great many Japanese have realized that the cause and elimination of on-going serial misfortunes are not explained adequately by scientific knowledge and can only be accounted for by spiritual beliefs. In the Tsugaru-Shimokita regions in Aomori Prefecture, northern Japan, itako (blind and half-blind female mediums) function as a cultural device in communicating with the souls of the dead. Their narratives in shamanistic rites, which often contain desire, demand, and dissatisfaction about the treatment to the dead, have often been interpreted as "sosen no sawari (punishment by ancestor)" or "akuryo no tatari (curse of an evil soul)." People who sincerely accept the itako's messages sometimes translate their fear of the dead into religious actions in order to heal the malignant souls and to escape from them. Weddings of the dead, a relatively new Buddhist practice in these regions, are a case in point. This paper explores the healing mechanisms of shamanistic rites performed by Japanese female mediums and weddings of the dead as a chain reaction of religious behavior. All ethnographic data were collected during fieldwork intermittently conducted by the author between 1991 and 2000.