EA 40 Week 1b Outline

I. Shamanism

A. What is shamanism? Who or what is a shaman?
 

1. Originated in Siberia 10,000 B.C.E.

a. spread to Americas

b. spread to South Asia

c. spread to China, Korea, Japan

1) oracle shells

2) mirrors, magatama jewels, swords, etc.

Link to article on three sacred regalia (mirror, sword, jewel) of Japanese imperial family; artisti's impression

2. Importance of shamanism in the study of religion: why is it underestimated?

a.

b.

3. Belief in two worlds:

    a. material world

    b. spiritual world

B. What can Shamans do?

1.

2. How do they do this? Achieve a trance state and then:

a.

b.

C. Two Main Functions of Premodern Shamanism

1. Make prophecies/fortune telling

2. Pacification/exorcism of:

a. deities (kami/ujigami)

b. angry or obsessed spirits (goryô/onryô or muenbotoke)

II. Two main categories of Shamans

A. passive vehicles or mediums (MIKO)

      1. When did they develop?

2. How do they gain their power?

a.

b.

c.

       

      3.  What gender mainly?

4. What kind of trance?

a. How do they achieve it?

1)

2)

3) torimono (image)

b. images of contemporary female shamans (Korean) 1,2

5. What can they do?

B. Active ascetics
 
    1. When did they develop?

2. How do they gain their power?

   

  3. What gender are they mainly?

    4. What is their trance like?

    5. What can they do?

A. Early shamanic women very powerful

1. image of female shaman (Uneme)

2. 4th century e.g. of Himiko from Chinese historical chronicles (Catalpa Bow, p. 28)

a. prehistoric (Yayoi-Yamato) female shamans

B. Development of Male Exorcism Specialists (8th-10th c.)

1. Ubasoku or hijiri (8th-9th c.):  figures who combined Buddhist and Shamanic practice

a. often outside established religious and political institutions (associated with common people)

b. eg. En no Gyôja, seen as the founder of Shugendô (mountain asceticism)

2. Yamabushi mountain ascetics (9th c. onwards)

a. practice Shugendô (combination of esoteric Buddhism and Shamanism):

b. practice centered on mountains

c. ascetic discipline (described pp. 85-93 Catalpa Bow)

d. images of modern-day yamabushi practice
 

C. Split of male and female roles after development of Buddhist shamanic specialists

1. female role:

"She can enter a state of trance in which the spiritual apparition may possess her, penetrate inside her body and use her voice to name itself and to make its utterance. She is therefore primarily a transmitter, a vessel through whom the spiritual beings can make their communications to us in a comprehensible way." (Catalpa Bow, p. 22)

2. male role:

3. exceptions:

IV. Deities

A. What are kami (native deities) and what do they look like?

1.  Began as any numinous manifestation of the sacred (hierophanies), mainly in natural phenomena

        a. Therefore can take on a wide variety of forms and characteristics (Catalpa Bow, p. 35)
 

b. Natural phenomena include:

1) natural objects  (shintai = god body) image 1, image 2

2) disease, natural disasters (originally not personified)

c. "True" form seen only by priests and shamans:

shinto priests with sakaki branches

B. When do they take on human-like form? (p. 38)

1. QUOTE: "The belief that the kami have any permanent or true form which they can manifest to human senses is late, and derivative from Buddhist iconography." (Catalpa Bow, p. 38)

Hachiman

Dragon King

Thunder and Lightning deities (Raijin)

2. From 9th c. onward, what form do they often appear as?

Okina 1, Okina 2
 

C. What all forms of kami share:

1.

2. Why do they appear in this world?

a.

b.

D. What do kami require from the living?

1.

2.

V. Tama or tamashii ("soul")

A.  "An entity which resides in some host, to which it imparts life and vitality..." (Catalpa Bow, p. 43)

 

1. Ikiryô (living spirit)

a. unconscious process:

Poem by 10th c. poet Izumi Shikibu mourning her dead love, Prince Atsumichi:

mono omoeba
sawa no hotaru mo
wa ga mi yori
akugareizure
tama ka to zo miru

Thinking of him:
could the firefly of the marsh
be my soul
departing from my very flesh
wandering off in anguish?

(adapted from Brower and Miner, Japanese Court Poetry)

1) even in this early period, visualized as a flaming ball/jewel. See also this much later Edo period image of hitodama (person-tama).

b. conscious process:

1) by a ascetic in a dream vision

2) by someone practicing black magic to attack someone they have a grudge against

2. Shiryô (dead spirit)

B. What happens to tama after they leave the body for good?

1. Shinto thinking: ujigami (the communal ancestral spirit/kami)

 
a. Worshipped by individuals for protection of their clan/family

 

2. Buddhist thinking: jôbutsu (becoming a Buddha)

a. Note: Remember that Buddhism and Shinto were not clearly separated

C. How can tama become personified kami? Two main ways.

1. Tama of powerful clan ancestors is considered deity for that clan: ujigami.

a. If the clan is politically powerful, the ujigami is also powerful, and eventually could become a deity for people outside the clan.

1) . e.g. Amaterasu Omikami as ujigami of the Yamato clan (imperial family) becomes the founding deity for all of Japan

2. Tama of onryô/goryô( literally, "honored spirits") who can cause possession illness etc. for individuals.

a. If the person was extremely powerful in life, as a goryô could become an ekijin (disease deity) or raijin (thunder deity) and cause problems for country as a whole.

b. Over many years, because of various pacification interventions, ekijin could transform into a different, less angry kind of kami.

1) eg. Sugawara no Michizane (845-903), starts out as goryô identified with Raijin, eventually deified as Tenman Tenjin, patron deity of school children trying to pass tests.

2) eg. Taira no Masakado (d. 940), starts out as goryô, eventually becomes somewhat demonic patron deity of Edo/Tokyo (sometimes evil, sometimes good, depends on the story).