Wara ningyoo 藁人形 straw dolls for curses
Japanese curse straw doll
Cursed Straw Doll
This is not about toy dolls made of straw, which go by the same name.
But these dolls take us back to another time and mentality.
They are close to the vodoo dolls.
藁人形 wara ningyoo,
a doll used for making a wish to kill or harm a person. At midnight, a nail is hit through the heart of the doll to fix it to a tree in a shrine.
ushi mitsu, the old double-hour of the ox beginning at one o'clock. mitsu signifies the third part of this time slot.
A time when the spirits of the dead and the gods are alive too.
"a time when the trees and plants are asleep"
草木も眠る丑三つ時
made with straw and hemp strings
noroi no wara ningyoo 呪いのわら人形
doll to curse a person
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Harunobu Nishiki-e 春信錦絵
ushi no koku mairi - ushi no toki mairi
丑の刻参り、丑の時参り
うしのこくまいり、うしのときまいり）
The double-hour of the bull
from one to 3 at night used for a curse.
ushimitsu 牛三 is from about 2 to 2:30 at night.
This time was the best to make a wish or place a curse with the help of the deities, be it Buddhist or Shinto.
source : Hokusai Ehon hayabiki
A straw doll was used to nail into a "sacred tree" 御神木 of a shrine at this time. (Some trees in the famous "cursing" shrines of Kyoto still show the holes made by the long nails.)
The doll was nailed with a metal nail or stake of 5 sun length 五寸釘 (gosun kugi). This had to be repeated until the cursed person was dead.
It worked best when a string of hair, a piece of skin or some blod of the person to be cursed was mixed with the straw.
There was the risk that the person who hit the nail into the tree might turn into an oni, a demon herself.
Some shrines were quite famous for its powerful trees, for example the shrine Kibune Jinja 貴船神社 (Kifune Shrine) and the Kiyomizu temple 清水寺 in Kyoto and the shrine
Ikurei Jinja 育霊神社 in Niimi, Okayama.
岡山県新見市哲西町大野部３９５９
The person was clad in white, painted her face white and wore a special headgear (gotoku 五徳, a tripot used in a hibachi brazier to support the kettle) with three candles.
The wooden geta clogs had only one support 一本歯の下駄, around the breast she wore a round mirror and on the hip a sword for protection 護り刀.
She had to bite on a wooden comb (kushi 櫛) and was thus not allowed to speak during the shrine visit.
If she met someone else on her secret cursing expedition, that innocent other person might "catch" the curse and die instead. So it was quite a difficult and dangerous expedition.
© More in the WIKIPEDIA !
Impaling the Sin -
villagers would nail a straw doll wearing their clothes to a sacred tree. The people's sin and misfortune were symbolically placed in the doll and offered to the Other World.
Kushimi Dolls and Igushi Dolls - 奇し御魂 －斎串
both were straw dolls representing the dead, skewered on the mountain near the place where the real world connected to the other world.
Impalement Ritual -
taking the folklore to an extreme, this ritual involves the impalement of an actual person who, like the dolls, takes on the pain of Worshippers. She then goes as an offering to the liminal space between the human world and the spirit world, taking the pain with her.
© More in the FRAMEWIKI !
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Ushi no toki mairi
(Two-o’clock in the morning prayer
[to curse a person to death])
Actors: Unidentified actor in dress of incantation with candles on his head, a mirror breast-plate, hammer, nails and straw doll, possibly as either Mashita Nagamori or Kume no Heiemon
source : www.kuniyoshiproject.com
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ikiryoo 生霊 . 生き霊 Ikiryo“living spirit”
. Hashihime 橋姫 / はし姫 "Princess of the Bridge" .
a vengeful lady indeed
The ikiryō has been described in some sources as a kind of astral projection by a person’s intense emotions (usually a woman, and usually jealousy, though there are exceptions). Sources disagree as to the particular characteristics of the ikiryō, such as whether it is visible to people other than its intended victim and whether it is the actual soul of a person traveling away from its body or a separate spirit given life by the creator’s emotions. There are some common attributes, however: once possessed, the victim begins to waste away, the victim can apparently “see” the apparition, once the possession takes place, the only way to ascertain the identity of the spirit is by questions from someone with mystical power over spirits (monks, priests, miko, onmyōji, shamans, etc.). A final attribute shared by those capable of sending out ikiryō has been described as a strong will, a will that often leads them to become marginalized members of society.
Ikiryō and Intense Emotions
The Rokujo Lady 源氏 Rokujo no Miyasudokoro六条御息所
There is much written about this lady from the Genji Monogatari. She is blamed for the death of one of Genji’s earlier lovers, Yugao, though this is hotly debated by literary scholars. The debate is centered on the fact that Genji sees an apparition of a beautiful woman just prior to Yugao’s death (and the reader is left to infer the apparition is that of the Rokujo Lady), yet he does not recognize her as the Rokujo lady. There are many possible explanations for this. The Rokujo Lady is definitely responsible, however, for the ikiryō possession of Genji’s wife, the Lady Aoi, when she is pregnant (and at her most vulnerable).
The Rokujo Lady is the widow of a prince who would have become emperor had he lived into adulthood. She never remarries, yet she doesn’t retreat from society as a nun, but still maintains her place on the skirt of society--even to the point of taking a lover (Genji). Genji contemplates leaving her, citing her strength of will (and her inability to be pleased, her dogmatic insistence on being proper even though she, herself, is lacking in this regard).
Print by Hokusai
The Rokujo Lady, prior to a move that will take her farther away from society (though not “out” of it) with her virginal daughter (another fact that serves to marginalize the Lady Rokujo’s family), goes to a festival to catch one last glimpse of her beloved Genji. She parks her carriage (an ornately decorated one as befits a lady of her rank) to one side, an act that partially obstructs the road to the festival grounds. When Aoi, Genji’s wife, tries to get by her retinue damages Rokujo Lady’s carriage. That act, committed (innocently enough as it was, though would later be described in Noh theatre as more aggressive) by someone of inferior rank, combined with the fact everyone recognized her carriage and why she had come to the festival making her a laughing stock, caused her blood to boil. Ever a student of propriety, she masked her jealousy and hatred well, yet her emotions created an ikiryō.
The ikiryō of the Lady Rokujo takes possession of Aoi, Genji’s wife, and she begins to waste away. A miko and a priest are summoned, and call her spirit forth to ascertain its identity. It is found that the ikiryō is that of the Rokujo Lady. An exorcism is preformed in which incense is constantly burned in Aoi’s chambers. The Lady Rokujo, who doesn’t know her ikiryō is possessing Aoi, has nightmares about attacking her and can’t seem to rid herself of the smell of incense. The exorcism allows Aoi to recover enough to deliver a baby boy, but she soon dies afterward. Later, her jealousy is calmed both by the fact she discovers her ikiryō is responsible for Aoi’s death and by a conversation she has with Genji. When she dies, it is suggested that she has truly “moved on.” Yet, later, when Genji’s second wife, Murasaki, is pregnant, the spirit of the Rokujo Lady appears again, eventually claiming a second (confirmed) victim.
MORE
source : obake.wikispaces.com
Ikiryō, or shōryō, seirei, ikisudama (生霊, lit. "living ghost," "eidolon"),
popular belief and fiction, refers to a spirit that leaves the body of a living person and subsequently haunts other people or places, sometimes across great distances. The term(s) are used in contrast to shiryō, which refers to the spirit of those who are already deceased.
- - - - - Summary
The popular belief that the human spirit (or soul) can escape from the body has been around since early times, with eyewitness accounts and experiences (hauntings, possessions, out-of-body experience) reported in anecdotal and fictional writings. Vengeful spirits (怨霊 onryō) of the living are said to inflict curses (祟り tatari) upon the subject or subjects of their vengeance by means of transforming into their ikiryō form. It is believed that if a sufficient grudge is held, all or part of the perpetrator's soul leaves the body, appearing in front of the victim to harm or curse them, a concept not so dissimilar from the evil eye. The ikiryō has even made its way into Buddhist scriptures, where they are described as "living spirits" who, if angered, might bring about curses, even just before their death. Possession is another means by which the Ikiryō are commonly believed to be capable of inflicting harm, the possessed person thought to be unaware of this process.
However, according to mythology, the ikiryō does not necessarily act out of spite or vengefulness, and stories are told of the ikiryō who bears no grudge, or poses no real threat. In recorded examples, the spirit sometimes takes possession of another person's body for motives other than vengeance, such as love and infatuation (for example the Matsutōya ghost below). A person's ikiryō may also leave the body (often very shortly before death) to manifest its presence around loved ones, friends and/or acquaintances.
- Classical literature
- Folk legends
- - - - Regional near-death spirits
- - - - Soul flames (hitodama, hidama)
- Ikiryō as an illness
- Similar activity or phenomena
MORE
- source : wikipedia -
. Goryoo 御霊 vengefull spirits .
. Legends of the Heian Period (794 to 1185) 平安時代の伝説 .
. kugi 釘 伝説 Legends about nails and curses .
for hitodama 人魂 / 人霊 / 人玉 see comments below
乗り移る人玉ならし蓮の露
nori-utsuru hitodama narashi hasu no tsuyu
the dew on the lotus leaves in the morning seems to sparkle and remind of the soul of a dead person, now sparkling on the lotus in paradise
Sugimoto Moichi 杉本望一
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丑三のわら人形が笑ふ夜
ushimitsu no wara ningyoo ga warau yoru
after midnight
the straw doll laughs-
what a night
or more literal
the night when
the straw doll laughs
after midnight
anonymous senryu
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Kobayashi Issa
神木は釘を打れて時雨けり
shinboku wa kugi o utarete shigure keri
a god's tree --
as a nail is hammered in
it drops cold rain
Tr. Chris Drake
Read the comments of this by Chris Drake :
. shinboku 神木, shinju 神樹 sacred tree .
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. . . CLICK here for Photos !
. Reference .
. O-Ningyoo Sama お人形様 O-Ningyo Sama .
A special guardian deity from Fukushima prefecture.
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waraningyoo -
the curse in ketchup
on the dinner plate
source : ymnnmy.blog70
wara ningyo made from eggs . . .
strap for the portable telephone
made from pure silver, with a nail . . .
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dolls for curses, made from paper for home use
呪いに使われる人形の一種・紙人形
source : ryoshida.web.
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日本の呪い―「闇の心性」
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. Aizen Myo-O 愛染明王 .
In the Shingon sect he is venerated in special ceremonies, Aizenhoo 愛染法、Kyooaihoo 敬愛法, to induce love in a partner.
Rites in esoteric Buddhism
1. Befriedende Riten (sokusaihoo; S: shaantika)
Gebete zum Schutz vor Katastrophen und Unheil:
2. Mehrende Riten (zooyakuhoo, sooyakuhoo; S: pustika, paustika)
Gebete zur Vermehrung von Wohlstand und Glück im Alltag sowie geistiger Errungenschaften:
3. Bannende Riten (choobukuhoo, chuubukuhoo, goobukuhoo) (S: aabhicaarika)
Eine Art schwarzer Magie zur Verfluchung und Unterwerfung von Feinden:
4. Gefügigmachende Riten (keiaihoo, Aizenhoo; S: vasikarana)
Dieser "Liebeszauber" wurde in der Heian-Zeit besonders gepflegt: Der Herd ist rund wie eine achtblättrige Lotusblüte, nach Westen gerichtet. Beste Tageszeit für die Zeremonie ist Mitternacht. Gewänder der Priester von roter Farbe. Hauptgegenstand der Verehrung ist Aizen Myoooo. Die Zeremonie dauerte oft eine ganze Nacht (ichiya goma). Statt der 108 Milchhölzer werden hier in der 3. Stufe 108 Blüten, meist rote Lotusblüten, verbrannt. Wenn man hier einen dreieckigen Herd wie bei bannenden Riten verwendet, wird ein bisher widerspenstiger Partner dem Opfernden hörig und tut, was der andere will.
5. Herbeiziehende Riten (koochoohoo, kooshoohoo; S: aakarsana)
Eine Unterform der gefügigmachenden Riten.
6. Lebensverlängernde Riten (enmeihoo, Fugen enmeihoo)
Eine Unterform der mehrenden Riten, die in Japan besonders beliebt war. Gebete um Verlängerung der eigenen Lebensspanne.
. Die Kultgegenstände des esoterischen Buddhismus
(mikkyoo hoogu 密教法具, mitsugu) .
Gabi Greve
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. Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 in Edo .
五寸釘松もほろほろ涙哉
gosun kugi matsu mo horo-horo namida kana
a nail of five sun -
even the pine
is weeping
one sun 寸 is about 3 cm or 1 inch.
神木は釘を打れて時雨けり
shinboku wa kugi o utarete shigure keri
a nail pounding
into sacred wood...
winter rain
Tr. David Lanoue
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芽吹く庭胸に打たれし五寸釘
mebuku niwa mune ni utareshi gosun kugi
budds are swelling in my garden -
a five-sun nail was driven
into my chest
Written when she got the news about Tamiko 多美子, her eldest daughter, having cancer.
. Abe Midorijo 阿部みどり女 (1886 - 1980) .
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大梁に鬼餅吊す五寸釘
oohari ni onimochi tsurusu gosun kugi
on the big beam
rice cakes for the demons hang
from a five-sun nail
Kureya Nana 呉屋菜々
On the 8th day of the 12th lunar month, the day of MUUCHI, rice cakes are offered to the deities and then eaten with the wish for the health and well-being of children.
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. muuchii 鬼餅 (ムーチー) "oni mochi" "demon mochi" .
in Okinawa
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