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- Title
Belief in Wooden Effigies Used for Malevolent Purposes between the Asuka and Heian Periods.
- Authors
Helfenbein, Katalin
- Abstract
In ancient Japan, human-shaped figurines were used in various rituals such as purification, exorcism and healing. In the light of preserved written sources and artefacts, it can be stated that several effi gies were used as implements of malediction from the beginning of the Asuka period. In most cases, the person who cast the curse and the person subjected to the curse are known, and the fact that their names could be primarily linked to the Imperial Court and politics raises the issue of the purpose of the applied magic. By the Nara period, belief in the figurines of malice prepense became stronger, while in the late Nara period the effigies used for malediction were banned by Emperor Shōmu, and legislation was enacted to punish those accused of the criminal act of malediction. Although malediction was subject to prohibition, the tendency to commit a crime by using magic did not diminish. On the contrary, several resources state that the use of malediction became even more prominent. By the late Heian period, this method of malediction came to be so feared that it actually infl uenced a certain royal ceremony. This article focuses on the written sources and artefacts preserved from a period of 600 years in Japan that reveal how the strong belief in effigies played a political role and how this belief infl uenced life in the capital.
- Subjects
EFFIGIES; PORTRAITS; EXORCISM; HEALING; BLESSING &; cursing
- Publication
Czech & Slovak Journal of Humanities, 2017, Issue 3, p18
- ISSN
1805-3742
- Publication type
Article