Miko

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File:Tokyo, Meiji-jingu (6215281946).jpg
Modern miko in Meiji Shrine, Tokyo, in 2000

Template:Shinto

A Script error: No such module "Nihongo"., or shrine maiden,[1][2] is a young priestess[3] who works at a Shinto shrine. Template:Transliteration were once likely seen as shamans,[4] but are understood in modern Japanese culture to be an institutionalized[5] role in daily life, trained to perform tasks ranging from sacred cleansing[4] to performing the sacred Template:Transliteration dance.[6]

Appearance

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The traditional attire of a Template:Transliteration is a pair of red Script error: No such module "Nihongo". (divided, pleated trousers), a white Template:Transliteration (a predecessor of the kimono), and some white or red hair ribbons. In Shinto, the color white symbolizes purity.Script error: No such module "Unsubst". The garment put over the Template:Transliteration during Template:Transliteration dances is called a Script error: No such module "Nihongo"..

Traditional Template:Transliteration tools include the Template:Nihongo3,[7] the Script error: No such module "Nihongo". (offertory Template:Transliteration-tree branches),[8] and the Template:Nihongo3.[9]

Template:Transliteration also use bells, drums, candles, Template:Transliteration, and bowls of rice in ceremonies.

Definition

File:Kamogawa ceremony 02.jpg
Miko perform Shinto ceremony near the Kamo River in 2006
File:Miko vestal virgin robes, fan and torikabuto ( phoenix hat ).jpg
Miko (c. 1895) in ceremonial costume, including torikabuto (tall phoenix hat), purple cording, tabard, long robe with train and large hand fan
File:Portret van een onbekende vrouw met een waaier The Miko (Vestal Virgin) (titel op object), RP-F-2001-7-1570-30.jpg
Original lithograph book plate with caption

The Japanese words Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration ("female shaman" and "shrine maiden" respectively)[10] are usually written Script error: No such module "Lang".[10] as a compound of the kanji Script error: No such module "Lang". ("shaman"), and Script error: No such module "Lang". ("woman").[10] Template:Transliteration was archaically written Script error: No such module "Lang". ("kami" + "child")[10] and Script error: No such module "Lang". ("shaman child").[10]

The term is not to be confused with Template:Transliteration meaning "prince", "princess" or "duke", and which is otherwise variously spelt Script error: No such module "Lang". ("august child"), Script error: No such module "Lang". ("imperial child"), Script error: No such module "Lang". ("imperial daughter", also pronounced Template:Transliteration), Script error: No such module "Lang". ("prince") or Script error: No such module "Lang". ("king", "prince" or "duke"). These spellings of Template:Transliteration were commonly used in the titles of ancient Japanese nobles, such as Prince Kusakabe (Script error: No such module "Lang"., Template:Transliteration or Template:Transliteration).

Template:Transliteration once performed spirit possession and Template:Transliteration (whereby the possessed person serves as a "medium" (Template:Transliteration) to communicate the divine will or message of that [[Kami|Template:Transliteration]] or spirit; also included in the category of Template:Transliteration is "dream revelation" (Template:Transliteration), in which a Template:Transliteration appears in a dream to communicate its will)[11] as vocational functions in their service to shrines. As time passed, they left the shrines and began working independently in secular society. In addition to a medium or a Template:Transliteration (or a Template:Transliteration, a male shaman), the site of a Template:Transliteration may occasionally also be attended by a Template:Transliteration[12] who interprets the words of the possessed person to make them comprehensible to other people present. Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration[11] may be passive, when a person speaks after suddenly becoming involuntarily possessed or has a dream revelation; they can also be active, when spirit possession is induced in a specific person to ascertain the divine will or gain a divine revelation.[11]

Template:Transliteration are known by many names; Fairchild lists 26 terms for "shrine-attached Template:Transliteration"[13] and 43 for "non-shrine-attached Template:Transliteration".[14] Other names are Template:Nihongo3, or Template:Nihongo3 (both likely Template:Transliteration meaning "female medium; fortuneteller"),[10] and Template:Nihongo3.[10]

In English, the word is often translated as "shrine maiden", though freer renderings often simply use the phrase "female shaman" (Template:Transliteration)Script error: No such module "Unsubst". or, as Lafcadio Hearn translated it, "Divineress".[15] Some scholarsScript error: No such module "Unsubst". prefer the transliteration Template:Transliteration, contrasting the Japanese MikoismScript error: No such module "Unsubst". with other Asian terms for female shamans.Script error: No such module "Unsubst". As Fairchild explains:

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Women played an important role in a region stretching from Manchuria, China, Korea and Japan to the [Ryukyu Islands]. In Japan these women were priestesses, soothsayers, magicians, prophets and shamans in the folk religion, and they were the chief performers in organized Shinto. These women were called Miko, and the author calls the complex "Mikoism" for lack of a suitable English word.[16]

Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".The word can also mean "shrine virgin".[17]

Mikoism

History

File:JP-tokio-meiji-mikos.jpg
Their attire consists of a white Template:Transliteration and red Template:Transliteration. The hair is tied in a ponytail with a white and red hair ribbon.

Template:Transliteration traditions date back to the prehistoric Jōmon period[1] of Japan, when female shamansScript error: No such module "Unsubst". would go into "trances and convey the words of the gods"Script error: No such module "Unsubst". (the Template:Transliteration), an act comparable with "the pythia or sibyl in Ancient Greece."[18]

The earliest record of anything resembling the term Template:Transliteration is of the Chinese reference to Himiko, Japan's earliest substantiated historical reference (not legendary); however, it is completely unknown whether Himiko was a Template:Transliteration, or even if Template:Transliteration existed in those days.

The early Template:Transliteration were important social figuresScript error: No such module "Unsubst". who were "associated with the ruling class".Script error: No such module "Unsubst". "In addition to her ritual performances of ecstatic trance", writes Kuly, "[the Template:Transliteration] performed a variety of religious and political functions".[19] One traditional school of Template:Transliteration, Kuly adds, "claimed to descend from the Goddess Uzume".[20]

During the Nara period (710–794) and Heian period (794–1185), government officials tried to control Template:Transliteration practices. As Fairchild notes:

In 780 A.D. and in 807 A.D. official bulls against the practice of ecstasy outside of the authority of the shrines were published. These bulls were not only aimed at ecstasy, but were aimed at magicians, priests, sorcerers, etc. It was an attempt to gain complete control, while at the same time it aimed at eradicating abuses which were occurring.[21]

During the feudal Kamakura period (1185–1333) when Japan was controlled by warring Template:Transliteration states:

[T]he Template:Transliteration was forced into a state of mendicancy as the shrines and temples that provided her with a livelihood fell into bankruptcy. Disassociated from a religious context, her performance moved further away from a religious milieu and more toward one of a non-ecclesiastical nature. The travelling Template:Transliteration, known as the Template:Transliteration, became associated with prostitution. ... [T]he Template:Transliteration's stature as a woman close to the Template:Transliteration diminished as a patriarchal, militaristic society took over.[19]

During the Edo period (1603–1868), writes Groemer, "the organizational structures and arts practiced by female shamans in eastern Japan underwent significant transformations".[22] Though in the Meiji period (1868–1912), many shamanistic practices were outlawed:

After 1867 the Meiji government's desire to create a form of state Shinto headed by the emperor—the shaman-in-chief of the nation—meant that Shinto needed to be segregated from both Buddhism and folk-religious beliefs. As a result, official discourse increasingly repeated negative views of Miko and their institutions.[23]

There was an edict called Script error: No such module "Nihongo". enforced by security forces loyal to Imperial forces, forbidding all spiritual practices by Template:Transliteration, issued in 1873, by the Script error: No such module "Nihongo"..[24]

The Shinto Template:Transliteration dance ceremony, which originated with "ritual dancing to convey divine oracles",Script error: No such module "Unsubst". has been transformed in the 20th century into a popular ceremonial dance called Script error: No such module "Nihongo".Script error: No such module "Unsubst". or Script error: No such module "Nihongo"..Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

Traditional training

Template:More citations needed

File:Tamagushi on an an.jpg
A tamagushi (traditional, ritual bundle of Sakaki (Cleyera japonica) twigs, of the type used by miko)

The position of a shaman passed from generation to generation, but sometimes someone not directly descended from a shaman went voluntarily into training or was appointed by the village chieftains. To achieve this, such a person had to have some potential.

To become a shaman, the girl (still at a young age, mostly after the start of the menstruation cycle) had to undergo very intensive training specific to the Template:Transliteration.[25] An acknowledged elder shaman, who could be a family member (like an aunt) or a member of the tribe, would teach the girl in training the techniques required to be in control of her trance state. This would be done through rites including washings with cold water, regular purifying, abstinence and the observation of the common taboos like death, illness and blood. She would also study how to communicate with Template:Transliteration and spirits of the deceased, as a medium, by being possessed by those spirits. This was achieved by chanting and dancing, thus therefore the girl was taught melodies and intonations that were used in songs, prayers and magical formulas, supported by drum and rattlers.

Other attributes used for rites were mirrors (to attract the Template:Transliteration) and swords (katana). She also needed the knowledge of the several names of the Template:Transliteration that were important for her village, as well as their function. Finally she learned a secret language, only known by insiders (other shamans of the tribe) and so discovered the secrets of fortune-telling and magical formulas.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

After the training, which could take three to seven years, the girl would get her initiation rite to become a real shaman. This mystic ceremony was witnessed by her mentor, other elders and fellow shamans. The girl wore a white shroud as a symbol for the end of her previous life. The elders began chanting and after a while the girl started to shiver. Next, her mentor would ask the girl which Template:Transliteration had possessed her and therefore be the one she would serve. As soon as she answered, the mentor would throw a rice cake into her face, causing the girl to faint.[26] The elders would bring the girl to a warm bed and keep her warm until she woke up. When the whole ordeal was over and the girl had woken up, she was permitted to wear a coloured wedding dress and perform the corresponding tradition of the wedding toast.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

The resemblance of a wedding ceremony as the initiation rite suggests that the trainee, still a virgin, had become the bride of the Template:Transliteration she served (called a Script error: No such module "Nihongo".). During her trance, said Template:Transliteration had requested the girl to his shrine. In some areas of Japan she had to bring a pot filled with rice (Template:Transliteration) and a pan. An old, long-abandoned practice saw Template:Transliteration engage in sexual intercourse with a Template:Transliteration, who would represent the Template:Transliteration. Any resulting child would be considered the Script error: No such module "Nihongo"..

In some cases, girls or women were visited at night by a Script error: No such module "Nihongo".. After this visit, the woman announced to the public her new position of being possessed by a Template:Transliteration by placing a white-feathered arrow on the roof of her house.

Contemporary Template:Transliteration

File:Miko at the Ikuta Shrine.jpg
Miko at the Ikuta Shrine

Contemporary Template:Transliteration are often seen at Shinto shrines, where they assist with shrine functions, perform ceremonial dances, offer Template:Transliteration fortune telling, sell souvenirs, and assist a Template:Transliteration in Shinto rites. Kuly describes the contemporary Template:Transliteration as: "A far distant relative of her premodern shamanic sister, she is most probably a university student collecting a modest wage in this part-time position."[27]

The ethnologist Kunio Yanagita (1875–1962), who first studied Japanese female shamans, differentiated them into Template:Nihongo3 who dance with bells and participate in Template:Nihongo3 rites, Template:Nihongo3 who speak on behalf of the dead, and Template:Nihongo3 who engage in cult worship and invocations (for instance, the Tenrikyo founder Nakayama Miki).[28]

Researchers have further categorized contemporary Template:Transliteration in terms of their diverse traditions and practices. Such categorizations include blind Template:Transliteration (concentrated in north and east Japan), mostly-blind Template:Transliteration (north and east Japan), blind Template:Transliteration or Template:Transliteration (northeastern Japan), Template:Transliteration (north and east of Tokyo), Template:Transliteration (central Japan), blind Template:Transliteration (northwest Japan), Template:Transliteration who tap Template:Transliteration ("bamboo grass") on their faces (northeast of Tokyo), plus family and village organizations.[29] Others have divided miko or fujo by blindness between blind Template:Nihongo3 or Template:Transliteration who perform Template:Transliteration and spirit mediumship and sighted Template:Transliteration or Template:Transliteration who perform divination and invocations.[30]

In the eclectic Shugendō religion, priests who practiced ecstasy often married Template:Transliteration.[31] Many scholars identify shamanic Template:Transliteration characteristics in Template:Transliteration ("New Religions") such as Sukyo Mahikari, Ōmoto, and Shinmeiaishinkai.[32][33][34]

See also

Citations

Template:Reflist

General and cited references

  • Aston, William George (1905). Shinto: way of the gods. Longmans, Green, and Co.
  • Blacker, Carmen (1975. The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan. London: George Allen & Unwin.)
  • Fairchild, William P. (1962). "Shamanism in Japan", Folklore Studies 21:1–122.
  • Folklore Society, The (1899). Folklore, Volume 10. Great Britain.
  • Groemer, Gerald (2007). "Female Shamans in Eastern Japan during the Edo Period", Asian Folklore Studies 66:27–53.
  • Hardacre, Helen (1996). "Shinmeiaishinkai and the Study of Shamanism in Contemporary Japanese Life", in Religion in Japan, ed. by P.F. Kornicki and I.J. McMullen, Cambridge University Press, pp. 198–219.
  • Hearn, Lafcadio (1894). Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan Volume 1. Houghton, Mifflin and Company.
  • Hori, Ichiro (1968). Folk Religion in Japan: Continuity and Change. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. Template:ISBN.
  • Kawamura Kunimitsu (2003). "A Female Shaman's Mind and Body, and Possession", Asian Folklore Studies 62.2:257–289.
  • Kuly, Lisa (2003). "Locating Transcendence in Japanese Minzoku Geinô: Yamabushi and Miko Kagura," Ethnologies 25.1:191–208.
  • (1906) North-China herald and Supreme Court & consular gazette, The Volume 79. North-China Herald.
  • Ricci, Daniele (2012). Japanese Shamanism: trance and possession. Volume Edizioni (Kindle Edition).
  • Picken, Stuart D. B. (2006). The A to Z of Shinto. Scarecrow Press.
  • Waley, Arthur (1921). The Noh Plays of Japan.

External links

Template:Sister project Template:Sister project

  • "Miko", Encyclopedia of Shinto entry
  1. ↑ a b Groemer, 28.
  2. ↑ Aston, 101
  3. ↑ North-China herald, 571
  4. ↑ a b Picken, 140.
  5. ↑ Groemer, 29.
  6. ↑ Hearn, 246
  7. ↑ Fairchild, 76
  8. ↑ Fairchild, 77.
  9. ↑ Fairchild, 78
  10. ↑ a b c d e f g Kokugo Dai Jiten Dictionary, Revised edition, Shogakukan, 1988.
  11. ↑ a b c Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  12. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  13. ↑ Fairchild, 119
  14. ↑ Fairchild, 120.
  15. ↑ Hearn, 202
  16. ↑ Fairchild, 57.
  17. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  18. ↑ Blacker, 104.
  19. ↑ a b Kuly, 199.
  20. ↑ Kuly, 198.
  21. ↑ Fairchild, 53
  22. ↑ Groemer, 46.
  23. ↑ Groemer, 44.
  24. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  25. ↑ Ichirō Hōri: Japanese Journal of Religious StudiesTemplate:Volume needed
  26. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  27. ↑ Kuly, 21.
  28. ↑ Kawamura, 258-259.
  29. ↑ Fairchild, 62–85.
  30. ↑ Kawamura, 263–264.
  31. ↑ Fairchild 1962:55.
  32. ↑ Blacker, 140.
  33. ↑ Hardacre.
  34. ↑ Kuly, 25.
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