The power animals of shamanism evolved in Shinto into messengers of the kami, able to mediate between the human world and the spiritual. Statues of animals are thus often found at shrines. The kitsune foxes at Inari shrines are … Read the rest
Category: Shamanic connections (Page 6 of 8)
Foxes have played a significant part in Japanese folklore, quite apart from their role as a servant of the agricultural deity, Inari. The information below, showing the continental and international connections, is edited and abridged from a recent item posted … Read the rest
The shamanic connections of early Shinto are often overlooked, but an item in the excellent website on Noh, from which the passage below is taken, suggests how strong a part shamanism played in the formation of Japanese culture. … Read the rest
Oomoto Summer Workshop, August 2013
Report by Dr Jann Williams, Tasmania, Australia
In August 2013 I had the privilege to attend the Oomoto International Summer Workshop in Kameoka, Kyoto Prefecture. Oomoto (also known as Omoto or Omoto Kyo) … Read the rest
Japan Today carries a report on an interesting Deer Dance in Tohoku which took place at the weekend. I’ve never seen this myself, but it’s suggestive of the kind of deer shamanism practised in the northern hemisphere (Siberia and … Read the rest
Animism is sometimes cast as primitive, or seen as outmoded by contrast with ‘sophisticated religions’ like Christianity and Buddhism. But with the rise of paganism and neo-shamanism, animism is again gaining ground in the West. Perhaps it never really … Read the rest
Japan. past and present
Go to a shrine and one thing you’re sure to see: fortune slips tied up on a tree. The preoccupation with fortune-telling of young Japanese, females in particular, is striking. Where does it stem from? One … Read the rest