Oshira-sama

Oshirasama (Japanese: おしら様, おしらさま, お白様, オシラ様, or オシラサマ, Hepburn: oshira-sama) is a tutelary deity of the home in Japanese folklore.[1] It is believed that when Oshirasama is in a person's home, one cannot eat meat and only women are allowed to touch it.[2] Born from a stallion and human woman, "images of this god [Oshira] are usually composed of the faces of a horse and a maiden."[3]

The festival day for Oshirasama is called meinichi (命日, or a death anniversary). It is held on the 16th day of the first, third, and ninth month of the Japanese lunar calendar.[1]

Legend

According to myth, Oshira-sama was born from a stallion and a maiden falling in love. Angered by the affair, the maiden's father killed the stallion and stripped it of its skin. "The skin then wrapped itself around the daughter and took her up to heaven. Later, they descended from heaven, incarnated as silkworms. After this they became the guardian gods of families and were called Jūrokuzen no kami." [4]" The original story can be read in the Sōshinki, a Chinese classic written in the fourth century."[5] Variations of this myth exist, however, the core significance of providing household protection through purification and foretelling fortunes remains generally constant.

Ritual practice

Having emerged from great hardship, the Oshira god is often invoked by Itakos or shamans to provide healing to individuals facing similar turmoil in their personal lives. Prayer-songs aimed at Oshira-sama generally take two pathways: "songs describing all the operations connected with the manufacture of silk, from the rearing of the silkworms to the storing of the woven silk, and chants recounting his origin."[6] Primarily owned and carried by itakos, depending on the region, some families posses a set of Oshira-puppets themselves: "These are sticks originally made of the wood of the same mulberry tree on which the horse hide was hung, one of them, the girl, ending in a human head, the other one, the chestnut Sendan, in a horse's head."[7] Itakos will typically sing a ritual song while dancing and waving the torimono (general handheld prop in many Japanese Shinto rituals) about.[8] Additionally, these puppets "are always 'clothed,' usually very simply but in many layers, a new layer being added each year. They are held one in each hand during the dance through which the shaman summons her possessing spirits."[9]

Main article: Shinto in popular culture

The deity is also a character for the film Spirited Away.[10] In the American version of the film the character is called Radish Spirit.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b "Encyclopedia of Shinto 詳細". 國學院大學デジタルミュージアム (in Japanese). Retrieved 2021-09-01.
  2. ^ Estok, S.; Kim, W. (2013-03-26). East Asian Ecocriticisms: A Critical Reader. Springer. ISBN 978-1-137-34536-3.
  3. ^ Therapeutic Rituals Performed by Itako (Japanese Blind Female Shamans), 1997
  4. ^ Therapeutic Rituals Perfomed by Itako (Japanese Blind Female Shamans), 1997
  5. ^ The Use of Music in the Ritual Practices of the Itako, a Japanese Shaman, 1995
  6. ^ The itako of North-Eastern Japan and Their Chants, 1993
  7. ^ The itako of North-Eastern Japan and Their Chants, 1993
  8. ^ Myth and Gender in Japansese Shamanism: The Itako of Tohoku, 1993
  9. ^ Myth and Gender in Japanese Shamanism: The Itako of Tohoku, 1993
  10. ^ MacWilliams, Mark W. (2014-12-18). Japanese Visual Culture: Explorations in the World of Manga and Anime. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-46699-4.
  11. ^ Phillips, Alastair; Stringer, Julian (2007-12-18). Japanese Cinema: Texts and Contexts. Routledge. pp. 316–318. ISBN 978-1-134-33422-3.


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