What kind of existence did Japanese witches really have in history?

There is a profession in Japan called ? Witch? , this Japanese ? Witch? and the Western countries? Witch? Western witches mostly represent evil, while Japanese witches symbolize justice. And this difference, the most intuitive performance in their appearance dress? In the Western mythological novels, witches are generally ugly, covered in garbage, but also like to engage in mischief; but the Japanese witches is another situation, Japanese witches generally speaking dress particularly fresh and vulgar, the overall will give a person a kind of self-contained fairy visual effect.

One, the status of witches: half-human, half-god, sacrosanct in many ways

Japan is located in an earthquake-prone area, but due to feudal superstitions more nature worship, we can not find any scientific basis for earthquakes, so the people generally believe that earthquakes are a kind of God expresses the wrath of the way, they believe that because of their own or someone is not pious enough to listen to the gods will be triggered. Shaking. The gods were revered, and naturally, the occupations derived from them were also revered. Witches? reverence.

So, in terms of nature, Japanese witches and European popes have some similarities, because here both are a kind of god-sacrificing profession. According to the definition of Japanese witches, as a link between mortals and gods, their job is to convey the meaning of the gods, and in the minds of the Japanese, they are half-human and half-god.

Because of the belief in the sun in Japanese culture (which can be seen in the current Japanese flag), witches are also called ? Sun Goddesses? If the country has a large-scale festival, or if they need to contact the god to express their hope, the witch will come out to preside. Therefore, Japanese witches generally live inside various shrines in Japan, such as Ise Jingu.

As sacred symbols of Japan, witches are naturally subject to very strict requirements for their clothing, food, housing, and dress. For example, you can not meet with mortals in private, you must go through layers of procedures to approve the application, but also to report. If you meet in the public **** event, according to the appropriate etiquette, and even when talking to people must follow a strict dialog, its nature and the ancient Chinese ministers to meet the emperor to go through the layers of steps are somewhat similar.

In addition to this, there are clear requirements for dress. In order to reflect the sacred, the general witch should wear white clothes, and its styling and dress and the film and television drama of the Chinese Han Dynasty women wore very similar clothing; also wear white shoes, and with a red shoelace, clothing will be added to some special cloak or robe. We can visualize this by referring to Miyamizu Mitsuba, the heroine of the hit movie Your Name.

Two, witch conditions: symbolic significance, the decision to select a number of restrictions

The former said, actually is a sacred profession, that in ancient Japan, naturally, not what kind of people can come to do witch, according to the relevant provisions of the witch must be a particularly pure girl can, because the witch is another meaning of the representative of the wife of the gods? The other meaning of the word "witch" is "wife of God". Therefore, the girl who serves as a witch must be unmarried and remain a virgin. In addition to this, one thing that needs to be guaranteed is that they have to be of good looks and gentle character, which is not hard to understand, after all, finding a wife for a god is naturally not possible to find those who are ugly or seemingly vulgar.

Of course, these are just some of the basic conditions, the most important condition is to have ? the ability to communicate with the gods? s ability. After all, a witch has to communicate with the gods, and a woman who is unable to communicate with the gods will not be able to be chosen as a witch, even if she meets the other conditions.

Seeing this, perhaps many people will ask, how do people judge whether a witch can communicate with God? We all know that as a person who has a close relationship with God, there must be something special about them, and as manifested in Japanese witches, they are required to possess some ? Spiritual power? Of course, the "spiritual power" in this case is the same as the "spiritual power" of the gods. Spiritual power?

The Japanese Shamans are not as mysterious as the ones in the movies or anime, they just have some special skills.

Fujiwara Akihiro had in the "new Sarugaku record" has recorded:? The Shikoku Shiki is a wizard girl, who can perform divination, shinjyuku, yoshi, and kouzai," he said. From this, we can see that it is enough to know some divination, ritual songs, dances, and some corresponding ritual processes, and all these can actually be trained later.

But it is worth mentioning here that although the status of witches is noble, there are still social classes within the class of witches. The highest level of witch must be a woman from the palace to be qualified to serve, this level of witch has a name is called Saiwang. After becoming a Saio, she has the right to command all the witches in the world to do her work according to her orders, such as to make sacrifices and summon the gods together, and so on. Moreover, a witch doesn't have to be a witch for the rest of her life, and can often return to the world and continue to live a normal life after reaching a certain number of years.

Three, witch high light period: once witch political integration, witch became the empress

We have said that in Japan, witch sacred to represent the meaning of heaven, so that her status to some extent can have us in the emperor so high, it is not surprising that she said everything will be convinced by the people.

And in the context of such times, people simply wouldn't offend a witch. And that's what made ancient Japanese women climb to the top for a time. For example, although witches did not need any property, they had a high degree of control over property, and at that time, the people would collect a lot of money and materials for large-scale rituals to thank the gods for their gifts, and these offerings and money were ultimately handed over to the witches to be distributed.

Besides, if the country was able to enjoy good weather and the people were able to live in peace and happiness during the period of a witch's tenure, the people would also attribute all the contributions to the witch. All in all, their privileges were not only more than those nobles in the palace, but their status was also much higher.

And in the long run, it's not surprising that a feminist society would emerge in Japan. The third century A.D., in the Japanese witch power to reach its peak, many witches directly to the throne of the queen, the most famous when the evil Madaigu Queen Peiyi Hu, this once in the Three Kingdoms period and the Central Plains have close contact with the country. According to "Wei Zhi? Japanese Biography", it is recorded that: ? (Peiyihu) is a demonic Taoist, capable of confusing people? , and this ghost way of controlling people is naturally sorcery.

Some people may think that ? Witch? can be in power, is it because the empress of the Empress Pei Wei Hu is too strong, a different person may be different? But is this really the case? In Wei Zhi? The Biography of the Japanese", it is also recorded that: "After the death of Pei Mu Hu, the Japanese were more powerful. (After the death of Pei Mi Hu) more established male king, the country does not serve, even more killed each other, then killed more than a thousand people. The king of the country was a man, and he killed more than 1,000 people. He then appointed the daughter of Peiyihu as the king at the age of 13, and the country was stabilized.

From this record, we can see that after the death of Peiyahu, there was a male king, but because the country did not obey its rule led to unrest in the country, and in the re-establishment of the female emperor, the country is once again stabilized, from which can be seen from the witch from the rituals to control the political has been y rooted in people's hearts.

Fourth, the decline of witches: when the status becomes a profession, witches transformed into commercialization

But with the later opening of the people's wisdom, the Japanese people's knowledge of nature continues to increase, the status of witches also began to decline. The weakening of their social influence led them to take up jobs outside of their profession in order to survive, and these professions were mostly related to travel and the arts. For example, these witches can dance, and the costumes also seem to come with a fairy atmosphere, so their dances are beautiful and highly appreciated.

In the beginning, these witches were only involved in public ****ization of rituals, but later on, some princes and nobles would also invite these witches when they performed rituals for their families. Some of the princes and nobles would give a lot of money to these witches during the rituals, and in return they would sometimes dance on certain occasions.

As time went on, the dancing of witches was no longer a new thing, and some witches were even invited to perform in the homes of some of the nobles, just like the Taoist priests in some Chinese families.

And in addition to dancing, they also help to run the festival at the shrine, which is kind of like being a host or staff member at a city or province. Of course if you look at it from a different perspective, they are also extremely similar on some level to the hosts at temples in some tourist attractions.

All in all, witches have become a part of Japanese tourist culture.

After being commercialized, the status of witches has become less sacred, and they have gradually become a profession. Some regions even once used the signboard of witches to do some custom business, seriously damaging the image of witches, but fortunately later in time to rectify.

When witches are no longer as sacred as they once were, and are even so common that they have become commercialized, the conditions for selecting witches will naturally change greatly. As a result, the standards for witches have actually been lowered, and by today's standards, any unmarried woman can be a Japanese witch.