Japan has a mystical tradition unique among the developed countries of the

world. It is unique, not because of anything in particular that existed in Japan

that did not exist elsewhere, but rather because of the peculiar combination of

elements from diverse sources and because of the survival of religious elements

that have long disappeared in the West. The cult of Amaterasu (天照らす), for

example, as the creator goddess in a polytheistic religion is nothing unique.

Indeed, most religions find their foundations in polytheistic or henotheistic

goddess religions, including Hebraism and Chinese religions. What is particular

to the Shinto cult of Amaterasu is the retention of this overall matriarchal

structure, despite massive social changes to the contrary over the last millennium

and a half.1 It is because of elements like this in the religious traditions of Japan

that individuals like Takahito Mikasa characterize Japan as a “living laboratory

and a living museum to those who are interested in the study of history of

religions.”2 Still, the study of religion in Japan has been predominately restricted

to Japanese Buddhism. The lack of any concrete doctrine or organization to

Shinto must be intimidating to the so-called social scientist. More intimidating is

the area of religious practice in which the distinction between Buddhism and

Shinto becomes vague or even non-existent. In the words of Carman Blacker,

this area “has been either ignored or relegated to various snail patches with

pejorative labels such as superstition, syncretism or magic.”3 However, it is in

this area that we find many of the most interesting aspects of religious life in

1 Richard Hooker, Women and Women’s Communities in Ancient Japan

(www.wsu.edu:8001/~dee/ANCJAPAN/WOMEN.HTM).
2 Ichiro Hori, Folk Religion in Japan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968), v.
3 Carmen Blacker, The Catalpa Bow (London: Devonshire Press, 1975), 33.
Japan. It is in this area that we find the ancient practice of shamanism, still alive

today (albeit radically changed). This paper will focus on two contemporary

traditions in which one may argue that shamanism continues to thrive. The first

is that of the blind medium found in various prefectures of northern Honshu.4

The second is among so-called new religions and new-new religions, such as

Shinmeiaishinkai (神命愛心会), as documented by Helen Hardacre.5 Before we

discuss the contemporary occurrences of shamanism, some background is in

order. I will begin with a brief overview of what Japanese shamanism was,

before the influence of China in the middle of the first millennium C.E., and its

relationships with other, better-understood traditions of shamanism elsewhere in

East Asia.

In Blacker’s rather comprehensive study of shamanism in Japan, she

defines two distinct types of shaman. The first she refers to as the medium. The

medium is always female and primarily is gifted with the power to receive kami

(神) 6, though she may also possess a host of other powers such as clairvoyance

and clairaudience. The second she refers to as the ascetic. The ascetic is

always male and often works in conjunction with the medium. The ascetic may

be used to compel the kami to perform certain actions, including compelling them

4 Kawamura Kunimitsu, The Life of a Shamaness: Scenes from the Shamanism of Northeastern Japan
(www.kokugakuin.ac.jp/ijcc/wp/cpjr/folkbeliefs/kawamura.html).
5
Helen Hardacre, “Shinmeiaishinkai and the study of shamanism in contemporary Japanese life,” ed. By
P.F. Kornicki and I.J.McMullen, Religion in Japan (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1996),
198-219.
6
Kami is often translated as deity or god. However, it is far more encompassing than the western
conception of these words. Kami generally refers to any being of the spirit realm, or even the spiritual
aspect of natural phenomena. It can refer to creator gods, human ancestors, and animal spirits among other
things. Also, as we will later see, the distinction between kami and bodhisattva, or incarnations of the
Buddha, is often unclear.

2
to enter the body of the medium. The former are often referred to as miko (巫女)7

and are Shinto in origin. The later are referred to as yamabushi (山伏) and are

Buddhist in origin. This paper will focus entirely upon the former, the miko.

Please note, however, that though the miko does find her origin in Shinto, the

distinction between Shinto and Buddhism quickly evaporates long before we

reach the modern age.8

There is some question as to the status of women in prehistoric Japan.

Chinese accounts claim that there was no social distinction between men and

women at this time, but as Hooker points out, does a society in which men

commonly have more than one wife, but not the reverse, truly practice gender

equality? This is not the only inconsistency we have in the Chinese records of

Japan, particularly regarding women, and it is likely that, in claiming the equal

status of men and women, the Chinese were attempting to show a less socially

stratified and thus less civilized society.9 However, despite the probable lack of

status on the part of women in social circles, it is likely that they demanded a

certain amount of respect on the spiritual plane. On the Ry_ky_ islands, at least,

it is clear that women held a monopoly on all kinds of magical power and that

though secular offices were usually held by men, these men were “entirely

dependent” upon women relatives for supernatural powers required by his

office.10

7
Miko can also simply refer to the distinctly non-shamanic shrine maiden. However, as this usage will be
avoided in this paper, I do not anticipate any confusion.
8
Blacker, 21-22.
9
Hooker.
10
Blacker, 113.

3
 It is difficult to get a clear picture of the prehistoric Japanese shaman. The

haniwa (埴輪) pottery figures found in the tombs of the kofun (古墳) period are

said to be very helpful in trying to reconstruct Japanese life in the fifth and sixth

centuries. Among these figures, Blacker claims that a number have been

“confidently identified” as female shamans.11 Hooker, on the other hand, argues

that these figures are too abstract to consider them conclusively female.12

However, I find that Hooker’s argument does not take into account the parallels

we see in these figures with what we know of later miko as well as parallels with

shamans in Korea, Hokkaido, and the Ry_ky_ islands.

In Korea, Hokkaido, the Ry_ky_ islands, and in Japan, we see a form of

shamanism that, though clearly similar enough to the Siberian prototype, is also

somewhat different in a number of ways. To enumerate characteristics of the

prototypical shaman: she is, primarily, the receiver of a gift from the spirit world.

The gift usually comes to her from a specific being who chooses her—not the

other way around. Before receiving the gift, she will undergo a terrible sickness

that may include: headaches, vomiting, aches in joints and back, mental illness,

and/or loss of sight. Eventually the spirit will visit the shaman-to-be and will

command her to abandon her former life and follow her calling to become a

shaman. Becoming a shaman is the only way to relieve the illness that Blacker

refers to as ‘arctic hysteria’. The transition into shamanhood is, for the shaman,

a very real experience of death. She will die and descend into the netherworld

11
Ibid, 104.
12
Hooker.

4
and after an initiatory experience there, she will be reborn as a shaman. Often,

the spirit that chooses the shaman will also become her spiritual spouse.13

It is unfortunate to find that, in the modern age, the majestic miko we see

described in accounts such as the Kojiki (古事記) and the Nihon Shoki (日本書紀)

as well as the countless occurrences in N_ drama has all but disappeared.

Today, the most significant tradition of this kind that we can find is in the blind

mediums of northern Honshu. However, it is debatable whether or not we should

rightly call this tradition, as it exists today, ‘shamanism’. I believe that it should

not. Calling this tradition ‘shamanism’, takes away from the meaning of the word.

Just the same, it is useful to look at this tradition to better understand what

shamanism is, or was, in Japan. Despite the probable lack of authenticity of the

experience of these would-be shamans14, the rituals and practices they perform

are clearly reminiscent of an older, probably more authentic, tradition.

Kawamura Kunimitsu interviewed twelve such ogamisama15 in the

northern part of Miyagi prefecture. Each of these ogamisama became blind in

their youth, generally because of disease. As such, their career options were

13
I compiled this information primarily from Blacker and Hori, as well as from my own previous
knowledge on the subject. In this paragraph, I have elected to use the feminine pronoun to remain
consistent with the rest of the paper. However, it should be noted that shamanism in Siberia is/was not
dominated by women as it was in prehistoric Japan. Furthermore, cultures such as certain Native American
tribes exhibit exclusively male shamanism. In these cultures, shamanism is directly tied to death, while
women are intrinsically tied to life (as a result of their ability to give birth). As a result, the only female
shamans in these cultures are women who have already undergone menopause.
14
Blacker, 140.
15
Ogamisama is one of many names for more-or-less the same phenomenon occurring all over northern
Honshu. Ogamisama is the name used in southern Iwate and Miyagi prefectures, and is thus used by
Kawamura. Blacker seems to prefer the names itako and ichiko. Itako is used in Aomori, northern Iwate,
and northern Akita prefectures. Ichiko is used in southern Akita prefecture. Other names include onakama,
waka, and simply miko, among others.

5
very limited, and for all of them, becoming an ogamisama seemed like the best

option. In other words, becoming a medium was an entirely economic decision.16

Despite the apparent lack of a truly ecstatic or trance-like state during the

initiation of the ogamisama, as we see in other, more authentic shamanistic

traditions, the ceremony itself contains much the symbolism that we are used to

seeing in shamanic initiation ceremonies throughout the world. Central to this is

the idea of death and rebirth. One ogamisama describes the clothing she wore

during her initiation ceremony as “the same ones a dead person wears.” The

only difference is that she wore a red mizuhiki (水引)17 instead of the usual black

one reserved for the dead. When describing the experience overall, she states,

“they send you off to the other world, and then bring you back, and start you off

on this path…you’ve died once, and then you’re born again.” After the initiation,

she describes being dressed in the manner of a bride. 18 It is never explicitly

stated that she is married to the spirit, be it kami or bodhisattva. Indeed, she is

still free to marry in the normal way. However, I suspect that this is a remnant of

an older tradition in which there actually was a marriage between the miko and

the kami.

There are a number of reasons to be suspicious of the authenticity of the

ogamisama as a true shaman. To begin with, one thing that is something of a

staple of shamanism is the initiatory vision. In the accounts reported by

Kawamura, the interviewees go into great detail when describing the events

16
Kawamura.
17
“Mizuhiki are decorative paper strings used as ties on ceremonial packages and other ritual objects.”
(Ibid.)
18
Ibid.

6
leading up to the initiation ceremony, as well as the ceremony itself, no account

of any such vision is given. In addition, Hori is reported to claim that one can see

the trances of the ogamisama to be nothing more than imitation upon close

inspection.19

In direct contrast to this, many scholars, including Hori, Blacker,

Tsushiro20, and Hardacre have argued that the founders of the majority of the so-

called new religions (shinsh_ky_ 新宗教) do exhibit true shamanic

characteristics. Hori describes three waves of new religions coming into

existence in Japan; beginning at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate around the

beginning to the middle of the nineteenth century, continuing with the end of

World War I and leading up to the Manchurian Incident in 1931, and again

immediately after World War II.21 A fourth wave has been identified with what the

media has called new-new religions (shin-shin sh_ky_ 新新宗教), emerging in

the 1970s alongside similar religious movements all over the world.22 A major

social crisis precipitated each of these waves. Hori argues that the third wave, in

particular, following World War II and the collapse of state Shinto did nothing less

than avert “the complete destruction of traditional Japanese social, cultural, and

political structures.”23

Each of the new religions (and the new-new religions) has a founder, and

each founder claims to have otherworldly knowledge. The majority of these

19
Blacker, 140.
20
Tsushiro Hirofumi, Shaman: a Successor of Traditional Wisdom
(www.culturelink.or.kr/article/shaman/tsushiro.html).
21
Hori, 224-7.
22
Hardacre, 198.
23
Hori, 219.

7
founders go on to claim initiatory experiences that are directly shamanic in

nature. Komatsu Kiyoko (小松清子), for example, the founder of

Shinmeiaishinkai, was visited by the bodhisattva Kannon, on behalf of the sun

goddess, Amaterasu.24 Both Kannon and Amaterasu told Komatsu that she must

act as their messenger in order to save the Japanese people. Komatsu objected,

explaining that she was unfit for their mission, as she had no religious training.

Amaterasu explains to her that her entire life, particularly the way she dealt with

pain, “crying only into [her] pillow,” had been her training.25 Following in the

tradition of the guardian spirit of traditional shamanism, Kannon and Amaterasu

continued to train and instruct her over the following years.26

The initiation and experience of Komatsu is typical of the founders of the

new religions. They are typically female, though not always. Moreover, they

have continued to emerge since Blacker’s statement that “this world view is fast

disappearing.”27 To be sure, Japanese shamanism as it is depicted by N_ plays

and in the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki very likely no longer exists. However, as

we can see by Shinmeiaishinkai, and countless other “new religions”, Japan

shows no sign of an end to the tradition of shamanism.

24
Here we see the blending of Buddhist and Shinto cosmology. This is nothing novel. Attempts to blend
the two religions have existed in Japan as long as the two religions have and the mediums discussed above
also claim to communicate with bodhisattvas and kami interchangeably.
25
Hardacre, 208-9.
26
This is in contrast to the ogamisama, above, who do not exhibit any special relationship with the kami or
bodhisattva that claims them during their initiation.
27
Blacker, 315.