How did Japanese witches exist in history?

There is a job in Japan called? Witch? , this one in Japan? Witch? And what about western countries? Witch? In contrast, witches in the west mostly represent evil, while witches in Japan symbolize justice. And this difference, the most intuitive performance in their appearance? In western fairy tales, witches are generally ugly, covered in garbage and like to play pranks; However, Japanese witches are another story. Generally speaking, Japanese witches' clothes are fresh and refined, which will give people a visual effect with their own fairy spirit.

First, the status of witches: half man and half god, sacred and inviolable in many ways.

Japan is located in an earthquake-prone area, but because of feudal superstition and worship of nature, people can't find any scientific basis for earthquakes, so people generally think that earthquakes are a way for gods to express their anger. They think that it is because they or someone ungodly is disobedient that the gods will be shocked. The reverence for God will naturally lead to the derivative occupation of God? Witch? Respect.

Therefore, in nature, Japanese witches and European popes have certain similarities, because both of them are sacrifices to gods here. According to the definition of Japanese witch, as the link between ordinary people and God, their job is to convey the meaning of God. In the eyes of the Japanese, they are half man and half god.

Because Japanese culture believes in the sun (as can be seen from the current Japanese flag), witches are also called? Goddess of the sun? . If the country has a large-scale sacrifice, or needs to contact God to express their hopes, witches will come out to preside over it. Therefore, Japanese witches generally live in various shrines in Japan, such as Ise Shrine.

As a sacred symbol of Japan, witches naturally have very strict requirements on food, clothing, housing, transportation and dressing. For example, if you can't meet a mortal in private, you must go through layers of procedures to approve the application and report it. If you meet in public activities, you should follow the corresponding etiquette, and even when talking with people, you should follow the strict way of dialogue, which is similar in nature to the steps taken by ancient China ministers to meet the emperor.

In addition, there are clear requirements on dress. In order to embody the sacredness, witches usually wear white clothes, which are very similar in shape and dress to those worn by women in China during the Han Dynasty in film and television dramas. At the same time, wear white shoes with red shoelaces, and add some special cloaks or sleeves to your clothes. By referring to the heroine Miyamizu Mitsuha in the popular movie Your Name, we can feel a thing or two more intuitively.

Second, the witch's conditions: symbolic, there are many restrictions on its choice.

As I said before, this is a sacred profession. In ancient Japan, naturally not everyone could be a witch. According to the relevant regulations, witches must be particularly pure girls, because what is another meaning of witches? The wife of God. Therefore, a girl who is a witch must be unmarried and remain a virgin. In addition, it is not difficult to understand that they need to be good-looking and gentle. After all, finding a wife for God is naturally impossible to find those ugly or vulgar.

Of course, the above are just some basic conditions. What is the most important condition? With the avatar spirit? Ability. Because after all, a witch wants to communicate with God, even if a woman who can't be psychic meets other conditions, she certainly can't be elected as a witch.

Seeing this, many people may ask, how do people judge whether witches can be with the avatar? As we all know, as people who are closely related to God, there must be something special about them. Is it necessary for Japanese witches to have some? Spiritual power? Sure, here? Spiritual power? Not as mysterious as in movies or comics, just some special skills.

Akihiro Fujiwara once recorded in New Ape Music:? Four royal people are also women, divination, fugue, string delivery, oral delivery. ? From this, we can know that some divination, sacrificial songs and dances, and some corresponding sacrificial processes can actually be trained the day after tomorrow.

However, it is worth mentioning that although witches are noble, there are still social classes within the witch class. The highest witch must be a woman in the palace to qualify. The witch at this level has a name called Zhai Wang. To be the Queen Zhai, she has the right to order witches in the world to do things according to her orders, for example, everyone summons gods with sacrifices. Besides, witches don't have to be witches all their lives. They can often continue to live a normal life after reaching a certain number of years.

Third, the high-light period of witches: Once witch politics is integrated, witches become female emperors.

As we mentioned earlier, in Japan, witches are sacred enough to represent heaven, so it is not surprising that in our country, her status can be as high as that of the emperor to some extent, and everything she says will be convinced by the people.

In this era, people don't offend witches at all. The same is true of ancient Japanese women who once reached the top. For example, witches don't need any property, but they have quite high property control. At that time, people would raise a lot of money and materials for large-scale sacrifices, thanking God for his gift, and these sacrifices and money were finally handed over to witches for distribution.

In addition, if during the term of office of a witch, the country can have a good weather and the people can live and work in peace and contentment, everyone will attribute all these contributions to the witch. In short, their privileges are not only more than those of the nobles in the palace, but also their status is much higher.

In the long run, it is not surprising that a feminist society will emerge in Japan. In the 3rd century A.D., the power of Japanese witches reached its peak, and many witches directly took the position of queen. The most famous is the evil horse, Thailand's queen Ji Mizi, who had close contacts with the Central Plains during the Three Kingdoms period. According to Wei Zhi? Japanese biography:? (himiko) Ghostly things can confuse people? , and this control person's ghost way is naturally witchcraft.

Some people may think? Witch? Can be in power, is it because the female emperor Ji Miko is too strong, and a different person may be different? But is this really the case? In Wei Zhi? Biography of the Japanese also records:? After himiko's death, he established a male king, who refused to accept it in the country and even killed more than 1000 people at that time. Re-establish the ancestral daughter of Jimei, and be king at the age of thirteen. ?

As can be seen from this record, after the death of Jimiko, a male monarch was established, but because the country did not obey his rule, the ruling and opposition parties were in chaos. After the re-establishment of a female emperor, the country settled down again, from which we can see that witches have been deeply rooted in people's hearts from sacrifice to political control.

Fourth, the decline period of witches: when identity becomes a profession, witches transform into commercialization.

However, with the opening of popular wisdom, the Japanese people's awareness of nature has been continuously enhanced, and the status of witches has also begun to decline. However, the weakening of social influence has led them to engage in jobs outside their own occupations in order to survive, and these occupations are mostly related to tourism and art. For example, these witches can dance and their costumes look like fairies, so their dances are beautiful and appreciated.

At first, these witches only attended public sacrifices. Later, when some princes and nobles sacrificed their families, they would also invite these witches. Some princes and nobles will give these witches a lot of money when they sacrifice. In return, they sometimes dance for a while on certain occasions.

Later, with the passage of time, witch dancing is nothing new. Some witches are even invited to perform at home by some dignitaries, just like some big families in China have Taoist priests.

In addition to dancing, they will also help the shrine manage the activities of hosting sacrifices, which is a bit like the hosts or staff of various provinces and cities. Of course, if you look at it from another angle, they are also very similar to the hosts in some tourist attractions and temples.

In a word, the witch now gives us the feeling that she has been integrated with Japanese tourism culture.

After being commercialized, the status of witches is not as sacred as before, and their status has gradually become a profession. Even in some areas, there was a time when they were doing some custom business under the signboard of witches, which seriously damaged the image of witches, but fortunately they were rectified in time.

When witches are no longer as sacred as before, or even as universal commercialization, the conditions for selecting witches will naturally change greatly. So the standards of witches have been lowered. According to current standards, any unmarried woman can become a Japanese witch.