| Description |
Dr. Kawakami Shinji introduced the cases of diverse activity of shamans in various forms in Japan from cases of regional shaman, city and earthquake-prone region shaman to other religion-related shamans. Dr. Shinji summed that ‘Japanese shamans are mainly mediumsforms and prophetic-forms, added with shamans of ministry-form. Japanese shamanism has a strong notion on listening to orders of the possessing spirit. This notion is interpreted as the principle foundation, and is well depicted in Japanese village offering ritual and in Amami-Okinawa Noro. It was a great gain as he systemically arranged the current aspects and categorized the cases. It can be noted that the shaman cases in your presentation does not deviate much from the Korean cases. Korean shamanism displays similar phenomenon and concept, although the three types are not expressed explicitly. So I think there need a more intensive preparation on
it. In regards to this, I would like to know what the characteristics of Japanese shamanism are in comparison to the surrounding regions (countries). Since listening to the possessing spirit is also a general notion of global shamanism, I would like to ask of other characteristics of Japanese shamanism. Adding on this, please brief us on how Japan systematically protects shaman heritage, and the influence of cultural heritage protection policy of government on the passing-down of shaman heritage. |
