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Kitsunetsuki
, also written , literally means "the state of being possessed by a fox". The victim is usually said to be a young woman, whom the fox enters beneath her fingernails or through her breasts. In some cases, the victims' facial expressions are said to change in such a way that they resemble those of a fox. Though foxes in folklore can possess a person of their own will, is often attributed to the malign intents of hereditary Asian witchcraft#Japan, fox employers. Stories of fox possession (''kitsunetsuki'') can be found in all lands of Japan, as part of its folk religion. Stories of ''kitsunetsuki'' s have already been attested during the Heian period. From a clinical standpoint, those possessed by a fox are thought to suffer from a mental illness or similar condition. Such illness explanations were already being published by the 19th century, but the superstition was difficult to eradicate. (cf. ) Heian period The belief in ''kitsunetsuki'' dates back to the Heian Period. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tengu
''Tengu'' ( ; , , ) are a type of legendary creature found in Shinto belief. They are considered a type of ''yōkai'' (supernatural beings) or Shinto ''kami'' (gods or spirits). The ''Tengu'' were originally thought to take the forms of bird of prey, birds of prey and a Monkeys in Japanese culture#Religion, monkey deity, and they were traditionally depicted with human, monkey, and avian characteristics. Sarutahiko Ōkami is considered to be the original model of Konoha-Tengu (a supernatural creature with a red face and long nose), which today is widely considered the ''Tengu''s defining characteristic in the popular imagination. He is the Shinto Japanese macaque, monkey deity who is said to shed light on Heaven and Earth. Some experts theorize that Sarutahiko was a sun god worshiped in the Ise Grand Shrine, Ise region prior to the popularization of Amaterasu. Buddhism long held that the ''Tengu'' were disruptive demons and wikt:harbinger, harbingers of war. Their image gradually ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spirit Possession
Spirit Possession is an altered state of consciousness and associated behaviors which are purportedly caused by the control of a human body and its functions by Supernatural#Spirit, spirits, ghosts, demons, angels, or Deity, gods. The concept of spirit possession exists in many cultures and religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity,Mark 5:9, Luke 8:30 Judaism, Wicca, Haitian Vodou, Dominican Vudú, and Southeast Asian, African, and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Native American traditions. Depending on the cultural context in which it is found, possession may be thought of as voluntary or involuntary and may be considered to have beneficial or detrimental effects on the host. The experience of spirit possession sometimes serves as evidence in support of belief in the existence of spirits, deities or demons. In a 1969 study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, spirit-possession beliefs were found to exist in 74% of a sample of 488 societies i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iwami Province
was an old province of Japan in the area that is today the western part of Shimane Prefecture. It was sometimes called . Iwami bordered Aki, Bingo, Izumo, Nagato, and Suō provinces. In the Heian period (794–1192) the capital was at modern-day Hamada. In the Kamakura period (1192–1333) the Masuda clan belonged to the Minamoto clan ( Genji) and conquered Iwami Province. From the sixteenth century onwards, it played an important role in East Asia's economic history as a major silver source. History During the Muromachi and Sengoku periods, the battles were very furious in this area. At first, the Masuda clan was in alliance with the Ōuchi clan in neighboring Suō, but later the Masuda clan belonged to the Mōri clan in neighboring Aki. On 16 June 1026, a tsunami struck the Sea of Japan coast of present-day Masuda, Shimane, killing more than 1,000 people. Maps of Japan and Iwami Province were reformed in the 1870s when the prefecture system was introduced. At the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inugami
, like kitsunetsuki, is a spiritual possession by the spirit of a dog, widely known about in western Japan. They seemed firmly rooted until recent years in eastern Ōita Prefecture, Shimane Prefecture, and a part of Kōchi Prefecture in northern Shikoku, and it is also theorized that Shikoku, where no foxes (kitsune) could be found, is the main base of the inugami. Furthermore, traces of belief in inugami exists in the Yamaguchi Prefecture, all of Kyushu, even going past the Satsunan Islands all the way to the Okinawa Prefecture. In the Miyazaki Prefecture, the Kuma District, Kumamoto Prefecture, and Yakushima, the local dialect pronounces it "ingami" and in Tanegashima, they are called "irigami." It can also be written in kanji as 狗神. Origins The phenomenon of inugami spiritual possession was a kojutsu (also called "kodō" or "kodoku", a greatly feared ritual for employing the spirits of certain animals) that was already banned in the Heian period that was thought to ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yamabushi
are Japanese mountain ascetic hermits. They are generally part of the syncretic religion, which includes Tantric Buddhism and Shinto. Their origins can be traced back to the solitary Yama-bito and some (saints or holy persons) of the eighth and ninth centuries. According to American writer Frederik L. Schodt: Clothing and items The Yamabushi usually wear and bring the following clothes and items with them: * Yuigesa (), a harness or sash adorned with pom-poms * Kyahan (), sandals made from straw * Tokin () which is a small hat-like adornment worn at the front of the head * Shakujō (), a metal rod, held in their hands * Oi (), backpack * Horagai (), a conch shell, which they blow like a horn to bind evil spirits See also * Cunning folk * Mount Ōfuna * Rishi * Shaolin Monastery Shaolin Monastery ( zh, labels=no, c=少林寺, p=shàolínsì), also known as Shaolin Temple, is a monastic institution recognized as the birthplace of Chan Buddhism and the crad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shugendō
is a syncretic Esoteric Buddhist religion, a body of ascetic practices that originated in the Nara Period of Japan having evolved during the 7th century from an amalgamation of beliefs, philosophies, doctrines and ritual systems drawn primarily from Esoteric Buddhism, local folk-religious practices, Shinto, mountain worship, and Taoism. The final purpose of ''Shugendō'' is for practitioners to find supernatural power and save themselves and the masses by conducting religious training while treading through steep mountain ranges. Practitioners are called or . The mountains where ''shugendo'' is practiced are all over Japan, and can span multiple mountains within one range such as the Ōmine mountain range with Mount Hakkyō and Mount Ōmine or the Ishizuchisan mountain range with Kamegamori and Tengudake. The ''Shugendō'' worldview includes a large pantheon of deities (which include Buddhist and Shinto figures). Some of the most important figures are the tantric B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kunio Yanagita
was a Japanese author, scholar, and Folklore studies, folklorist. He began his career as a bureaucrat, but developed an interest in rural Japan and its folk traditions. This led to a change in his career. His pursuit of this led to his eventual establishment of Japanese folklore, Japanese native folkloristics, or ''minzokugaku'', as an academic field in Japan. As a result, he is often considered to be the father of modern Japanese folklore studies. Early life Yanagita was born as the fifth child of the Matsuoka family in the town of Fukusaki, Hyōgo, Fukusaki, located in Hyōgo Prefecture. He was born with the name Kunio Matsuoka (or Matsuoka Kunio in the Japanese manner of naming), but was adopted into the family of a court justice named Naohei Yanagita. At the time, it was fairly common practice for families without a son Japanese adult adoption, to adopt a young boy or man into the family to inherit the family's property. This would often occur through marriage, with the adopti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sharecroppers
Sharecropping is a legal arrangement in which a landowner allows a tenant (sharecropper) to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping is not to be conflated with tenant farming, providing the tenant a higher economic and social status. Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range of different situations and types of agreements that have used a form of the system. Some are governed by tradition, and others by law. The French '' métayage'', the Catalan '' masoveria'', the Castilian ''mediero'', the Slavic ''połownictwo'' and ''izdolshchina, the Italian mezzadria'', and the Islamic system of ''muzara‘a'' (المزارعة), are examples of legal systems that have supported sharecropping. Overview Under a sharecropping system, landowners provided a share of land to be worked by the sharecropper, and usually provided other necessities such as housing, tools, seed, or working animals. Local merchants usually provide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kulak
Kulak ( ; rus, кула́к, r=kulák, p=kʊˈɫak, a=Ru-кулак.ogg; plural: кулаки́, ''kulakí'', 'fist' or 'tight-fisted'), also kurkul () or golchomag (, plural: ), was the term which was used to describe peasants who owned over of land towards the end of the Russian Empire. In the early Soviet Union, particularly in Soviet Russia and Azerbaijan, ''kulak'' referred to property ownership among peasants who were considered hesitant allies of the Bolshevik Revolution. In Ukraine during 1930–1931, there also existed a term of podkulachnik (almost wealthy peasant); these were considered "sub-kulaks". ''Kulaks'' referred to former peasants in the Russian Empire who became landowners and credit-loaners after the abolition of serfdom in 1861 and during the Stolypin reform of 1906 to 1914, which aimed to reduce radicalism amongst the peasantry and produce profit-minded, politically conservative farmers. During the Russian Revolution, ''kulak'' was used to chastise ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
