Make the cuts at the bottom as in the picture.
Divination by Turtle Shell or by the Shoulder Blade of a Deer
Ancient chronicles like the Nihon Shoki tell of divination through cracks in turtle shells or the shoulder blades of deer. To do this, take the shell or an animal shoulder bone and incise upon it the symbol Machi, as shown in the diagram below.
Take care here – notice that south is at the top of the diagram, which changes all of the directions – traditionally the Chinese used south for the top of their maps while Europeans used north. As you can see, south corresponds to the tail of the turtle shell, which is upright.
To acquire knowledge about the future, you have to ask a question that can be answered in a yes-or-no fashion. Then take the turtle shell or animal bone and cast it into a fire. When the first crack appears, you remove the shell and check the direction of the crack against the following list.
Positive Cracks
1. A crack in the north half and to the right
2. A straight crack in the north half
3. A crack in the south half and to the right
4. A straight crack in the south half
5. Cracks that go horizontal east or west
6. Cracks that go horizontal east or west and then point south
Negative Cracks
1. A crack in the north area and to the left
2. A crack in the south area and to the left
3. Cracks that go horizontal east or west and then point north
If you need to understand a dilemma and discover the ideal solution, you must prepare a certain amount of these shells or bones. In ancient times, for example, shells were burnt in this manner to select future virgin shrine maidens, one for each baby put forward; when a shell came up with a positive crack, that baby was then prepared for life to fulfil the role divination had set for her.
A Stick in the Road
To have a question answered, go to a road at dusk with a question in mind and plant a stick in the road. This is a representation the phallic god Kunado. Then listen to the talk of passers-by, and this will give you the answer to your question.
Stroking the Comb
As above, this magic spell is used to gain answers. Go to a crossroads with a comb of boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) and stroke it (most likely the teeth) across the sleeve of your kimono and speak or repeat the word ‘tsuge’. This means both ‘box-wood’ and ‘inform me’. Then say the following three times: ‘Oh god of cross-road divination, grant me a true response.’ The answer will come by the chatter of the next person to come past you, or even the third person. Sometimes an area around the practitioner would be cordoned off with rice to dispel evil. A similar version is given by Hadland-Davies, who calls it tsuji-ura. In this practice women listen to the conversations of passers-by and string together the prediction.
Ku Magic
Ku magic is very evil and of Chinese decent. To practise this you are to collect as many venomous creatures as possible and place them all in a pot together. After a while of fighting and feasting only one creature will be left alive; this is now the Ku animal. This creature can bring you riches but it can also kill your enemy with ease. You can kill your enemy directly with it or you can let it run around their food, poisoning the meal, bringing death and disease.
This Ku creature is a powerful entity and is difficult to destroy. It is said that through it a magician will gain wealth and power and that any souls that the creature kills will serve the magician and not go on to the afterlife. Once it has been exposed to a feast it will contaminate the food with its evil, and when the guests eat they will die in fits of coughing blood, or the animals that the guests have eaten will be resurrected in their stomachs and kill them from the inside.
Some Ku creatures, like the golden caterpillar or the Ch’in tsan, are put in loaves of bread, wrapped up and left on the roadside; if a traveller picks it up and eats it, they will die and their soul will serve the magician.
Creating a Powerful Dog Talisman
The magic of Inu Gami: Tie up a hungry dog on a lead and place some food just out of reach. When the dog is at its hungriest and straining forward, cut off its head and place it in a vessel. This will make a powerful dog-deity to worship and use as the magician can command it to do their bidding.
The Vengeance of the Dog
Bury a dog in the ground up to its neck and cut off its head with a bamboo saw (a common execution technique in Japan). As it dies, say, ‘If you have a soul, kill [insert name] and I will make you a god.’ Then keep the dog’s head and the dog will effect curses for you.
To Expel Crop Pests
Create a soldier made from straw and parade him around a field that is plagued by pests, then throw him into a river. This will expel the pests.
Calling up the Dead
Calling up the dead in Japan is sometimes as simple as reciting a poem or a passage addressed to the dead. This passage will call them to you and you may ask them to answer any questions that you have.
Hear me, hear me,
I call for today’s water
What water may I call for?
I call for the water, the young spray
Spirit, come with your sleeves bathed in tears
Spirit, come with your skirts full of dewdrops
We can only hear its voice and not see its form
We can hear the sound but not see the figure
It comes on seven or eight rapid currents
Come down to dance
It comes to give us an account
The spirit will come and you may ask questions of it.
A Spell to Deprive Someone of Their Senses
Below is a Shinto spell to deprive someone of their senses. It is said that Miyaji Suii learned this spell from a high-ranking eighteenth-century monk called Sugiyama Sosho. Simply chant this spell and clap your hands once at the end.
あんたりをん、そくめつそく、びらりやびらり、そくめつそく、ざんざんきめい、ざんきせい、ざんだりひをん、しかんしきじん、あたらうん、をんぜそ、ざんざんびらり、あうん、ぜつめい、そくぜつ、うん、ざんざんだり、ざんだりはん
(Antariwon, Sokumetsusoku Birariyabirari Sokumetsusoku Zanzankimei Zankisei Zandarihiwon Shikanshikijin Ataraun Wonzeso Zanzanbirari Aun Zetsumei Sokuzetsu Un Zanzandari Zandarihan)
The Art of Toritsu Banashi – Summoning the Dead
First you need a Shinto and Buddhist priest (not easy to find) to perform purification rituals of the area and put out incense and then make offerings of flowers and uncooked rice at the altar. The priest then takes a bow or bow-like tool and twangs it with his right hand, calling the name of the dead, then shouts ‘kitazo yo!’ over and over again. Kitazo means ‘I have come’, and the priest shouts this time and time again until his voice changes and is replaced with the voice of the dead person being summoned. The dead person may then be asked questions, but it will answer briefly and will interrupt with calls of ‘Hasten, hasten for my coming back is painful and I have little time to stay’. After the ghost has gone the priest will be unconscious. This ritual is said to have been performed in the strange story of Bikuni-san. This woman had lost her son and called him back from the dead, but when the son returned he told her not to mourn for it ailed him, instructing her instead to give offerings to the dead. She became a nun, childlike in nature, and loved all things that were miniature.
Shamanism
Shamanism has one foot in the prehistoric and one foot in the modern era. Almost dead in Japan, it can be classed as one of the oldest forms of magic in the world. However, it has no central or unified philosophy and varied according to time, location and lineage; it is therefore multifaceted and colourful but also hard to define. On the whole, shamans (for want of a better word) are predominantly female (shamanesses) but males are not unknown and therefore I will use the masculine term to mean both male and female. Of course a shaman in Japan would not call themsel
ves a shaman, and they would not even understand the word, but the rites and rituals they perform fall under this broad term. The task of the shaman was to cure the sick, perform divination, mediumship and even telepathy, and also to go into trances.
You may be able to recognise a Japanese shaman walking along; they have a black bag on their back and a ‘rosary’ called an Irataka no Juzu consisting of 180 beads and badger fangs. They may have polished badger, fox or bear skulls, old coins, or all of the above and more. A shaman may make money on feast days or when travelling by communicating with the dead for relatives of those who have passed on. Also, when a local person dies, the village will put money together to call a shaman and have them perform the ritual of ‘opening the mouth of the dead’ to help the soul on its way.
Protecting Your Home from Evil
Remembering that the dead, demons, fox spirits and all kinds of strange creatures prowl the night in old Japan, it was essential to protect your home from invading monsters. The following are a few things that can be done to keep evil at bay and beyond the threshold.
The Family Shrine
From ancient times in Japan, Shinto, the way of the gods, has been a folk religion, and ancestor worship is a massive part of this. A Japanese family may maintain an uji-gami shrine where the dead members of the family collectively become ‘the ancestors’. When someone passes over into the spirit world they can join the gods or collective souls who look after the family. Once dead, a person becomes a hotoke-sama in the Buddhist tradition and a reijin or mikoto in the Shinto tradition. Alternatively, there is the hito-kami (possibly gami), which is a holy place dedicated to a single personified spirit-god (kami). Both versions will protect and nurture the whole family and are a form of protection from evil or malice for the family – a fun way to understand this can be found in the Disney film Mulan, in which the titular character talks with her ancestors.
Keeping the Dead out of a House
To keep the dead out of a house in shamanistic traditions the following spell is used. This is also a spell to counter destructive spinning elements in nature such as tornados, and the twisted forces of the dead. There may be variations to this, depending on tradition; however, the basic elements are as follows:
1. Take female underwear and tear off a ‘rag’ section of it.
2. Twist it in a left direction (possibly tied in a knot or tied with string).
3. The twisted rag is rubbed between female legs to infuse it with female energy.
4. Scorch the charm at one end.
5. Stand with your back to a crossroads or facing the entrance to a house.
Then finish by saying the following spell:
Ghosts of the dead
Ghosts of animals
Make no entry into this house
But help yourself to these rags
Finally, place the rag near the doorway, the dead will then be barred entrance to the home.
In Japan you cannot walk into a house with shoes on; part of this tradition is down to the fact that it is bad to walk out of a house with shoes on. It is not certain why this is so but one theory is that samurai would prepare for war and armour themselves inside a house; they would walk out with their shoes on and go to battle – and perhaps death.
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CASTLES, FORTIFICATIONS AND ARCHITECTURE
Even the castle or house of a samurai was constructed in accordance with tradition and magic. While this involved a complex system, there are some rules that do govern the fundamentals and which are based on the Chinese system of Feng Shui. The ideal is as follows:
1. To the north there must be mountains
2. To the east there must be water
3. To the south it must be open land
4. To the west there must be a great road
As each of the directions is associated with a colour, the Japanese had a poem to help them remember this system:
A black tortoise to the north
A blue dragon to the east
A red sparrow to the south
A white tiger to the west
Kyoto, the old capital of Japan, is based on this principle, being situated according to the rules above.
The Demon’s Gate
Sometimes the north-east is known as Kimon and is considered to be the realm of demons. In Tokyo today, the Kanda Myojin shrine in Ochanomizu and the Kaneiji temple in Ueno are both north-east of the imperial palace, which was once Edo Castle, the home of the ruling Tokugawa family. This was deliberately arranged so that the two holy places would protect the castle from the demonic influences of that direction – a double north-east barrier, if you like.
It is not uncommon for the north-eastern corner of a building to have a cut-out like the image below to stop demons or to confuse them. Also, you can place a statue or image of a monkey on this corner to ward off evil.
The Rear Demon’s Gate
The opposite direction, south-west, is called Urakimon, which translates to ‘Rear Demons’ Gate’. To add to the protection of Edo Castle outlined above, the Sanno Jinja shrine was built to the south-west; this was then backed up by Hikawa Jinja shrine and Zojoji temple, which both lie south-west of the castle.
Holly and Sardines
To keep demons out of your house you should take a sprig of holly and a roasted sardine head. Place the roasted sardine head on the end of one of the sprigs and tie it to the outside of your house. It is said that the holly stabs the eye of the demon and the smell of the roasted sardine keeps them at bay.
Spell of Protection
To guard your house at night use the following spell for protection:
寝るぞ根太 頼むぞ垂木 梁柱 何事あらば起こせ屋根棟
(Listen to me floor joists, I’m going to bed, rafters, beams and pillars, you have control, roofs and ridges wake me up if needs arise!)
Bridges, Pillars and Platforms
Alongside houses and castles, bridges, pillars and platforms were also in need of protection. The following stories show how normally human sacrifice was needed to placat any angered spirits, deities and dragons.
The Legend of Matsuo Kotei and the Dragon Platform
Legend has it that when attempts were made to build a fake island platform near Kobe, the stone foundations kept washing away with the tide. A necromancer named Abe na Yasuuji said that they were trying to build on the site of a dragon’s lair and that thirty people would need to be sacrificed and buried beneath the pillars of the platform. He proposed to use local travellers for this sacrifice, but there was an uproar at the very idea, so a young man named Matsuo Kotei gave himself up in sacrifice so that the dragon could be placated.
The Dragon of Enoshima
In the year 151 the island of Enoshima was plagued by a dragon, so a lady called Benten sent it to sleep with soothing music from her koto (a Japanese stringed instrument). The people then killed it while it slept, and a temple was erected on the site. One Hojo Tokimasa (1138–1215), from a famous samurai family, prayed here, and while he did so a goddess appeared to him with a dragon’s tail coming from the rear of her kimono. She warned him that if he was unjust then the family would fall within seven generations – the family fell in 1333.
The Bridge at Nikko
Shodo Shonin was the founder of the first Buddhist temple in Nikko (now a national park). One day he saw clouds of four different colours in the distance. Trying to reach them, he came to a river which was raging before him; unable to cross, he prayed for help. On the opposite bank of the river a gigantic apparition appeared, robed in blue and black and wearing a huge necklace of human skulls. The figure threw a green snake and a blue snake over the river so that they stretched from one bank to the other and a bridge was formed. After Shonin crossed the bridge of snakes, the figure disappeared.
The Pillar of Gensuke
Gensuke Bashira’s story, like those above, involves sacrifice and architecture. It is thought to date from 1596–1614. The bridge over the Matsu River was being improved, but
the masonry always collapsed. Therefore, the builders decided that the next person to cross the older bridge would be sacrificed to appease whatever was doing the mischief. That sacrifice was called Gensuke. He was killed and put beneath the pillar.
The Pillar of Ears (or Noses)
Mimidzuka is a monument at a temple in Kyoto which is said to have buried below it the severed ears of over 30,000 Koreans taken during the invasion of Korea in the sixteenth century. Other research shows that it was not ears but noses that were taken, which is probably correct. Noses used to be taken if heads were too numerous, and the norm in Japan was to take the top lip and the nose at the same time to show the stubble or moustache to prove that the nose was from a man. However, Hideyoshi, the lord in charge of Japan during the invasion of Korea, is said to have given this order (translated by Hawley):
Mow down everyone universally, without discriminating between young and old, men and women, clergy and the laity—high-ranking soldiers on the battlefield, that goes without saying, but also the hill folk, down to the poorest and meanest—and send the heads to Japan.
So, back came the noses and into the pile they went, a tribute to the slaughter of tens of thousands of Koreans – this is not a monument the Japanese promote, yet it still stands and remains a sensitive issue.
The Dark Side of Japan: Ancient Black Magic, Folklore, Ritual Page 5
