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

---

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.

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

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

vol.2, pp.47-54, 2002-03-10

---

This paper shows how female mediums such as itako and kamisama are taking a leading part in two religious practices, which have mainly spread through the Tsugaru and Shimokita regions of Aomori Prefecture. In hotoke-oroshi, the female mediums mediate the narratives of the dead and persuade local people of a shamanistic reality; for instance, the dead can interactively communicate with the living through the female mediums, often provide great influence on the lives of the living, and the dead get older year by year along with the living. As Japanese tradition shows in shinda ko no toshi wo kazoeru (counting the age of dead children), even fetuses, infants, and youths who die at an early age can often be kept growing, with the ability to attain marriageable age. Because the dead grow old in the minds of the living as the same pace as the living, it is no wonder the shamanistic messages sometimes convey the dead's strong psychological attachment to unfulfilled achievements in life, most of which are related to happy occasions in rites of passage, especially weddings. These shamanistic realities mediated by the narratives of the dead connect with local Buddhism to create another cultural device for the communication between the dead and the living-weddings of the dead. It is notable that Buddhist ritual in these religious events accepts the involvement of spiritual mediums such as itako and kamisama. Here we see a typical appositional synchronism of Japanese culture in the two different religious practices for the repose of the dead and the fulfillment of their lives in the world of the living. All ethnographic data were collected during fieldwork intermittently conducted by the author between 1991 and 2001.

著者

塚本 珪一 Keiichi TSUKAMOTO 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

出版者

平安女学院大学

雑誌

平安女学院大学研究年報 (ISSN:1346227X)

巻号頁・発行日

no.3, pp.69-81, 2002

著者

塚本 珪一 Keiichi TSUKAMOTO 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

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

vol.3, pp.69-82, 2003-03-10