refers to the

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese belief that mystical powers dwell in words and names. English translations include "soul of language", "spirit of language", "power of language", "power word", "

magic word Magic words are phrases used in fantasy fiction or by Magic (illusion), stage magicians. Frequently such words are presented as being part of a Divine language, divine, Adamic language, adamic, or other Twilight language, secret or Language of t ...

", and "sacred sound". The notion of ''kotodama'' presupposes that sounds can affect objects, and that ritual word usages can influence the environment,

body Body may refer to: In science * Physical body, an object in physics that represents a large amount, has mass or takes up space * Body (biology), the physical material of an organism * Body plan, the physical features shared by a group of anim ...

mind The mind is that which thinks, feels, perceives, imagines, remembers, and wills. It covers the totality of mental phenomena, including both conscious processes, through which an individual is aware of external and internal circumstances ...

, and

soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...

. Some interpret the belief as the discovery of commands words that can affect physiology and the mind.

Basis

This Japanese compound ''kotodama'' combines ''koto'' 言 "word; speech" and ''tama'' 霊 "spirit; soul" (or 魂 "soul; spirit; ghost")

voiced Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced. The term, however, is used to refe ...

as ''dama'' in ''

rendaku is a pronunciation change seen in some compound words in Japanese. When rendaku occurs, a voiceless consonant (such as ) is replaced with a voiced consonant (such as ) at the start of the second (or later) part of the compound. For example, t ...

''. In contrast, the

unvoiced In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies vo ...

''kototama'' pronunciation especially refers to , which was popularized by

Onisaburo Deguchi , born Kisaburō Ueda 上田喜三郎 (1871–1948) was a Japanese religious leader. Together with his mother-in-law Nao Deguchi, he was one of the two spiritual leaders of the Oomoto religious movement in Japan. While Nao Deguchi is the of ...

in the

Oomoto file:Chouseiden.jpg, 200px, ''Chōseiden'' (長生殿) in Ayabe, Kyoto, Ayabe , also known as , is a religion founded in the 1890s by Nao Deguchi, Deguchi Nao (1836–1918) and Onisaburo Deguchi, Deguchi Onisaburō (1871–1948). Oomoto is typ ...

religion. This field takes the Japanese ''

gojūon In the Japanese language, the is a traditional system ordering kana characters by their component phonemes, roughly analogous to alphabetical order. The "fifty" (''gojū'') in its name refers to the 5×10 grid in which the characters are dis ...

'' phonology as the mystical basis of words and meanings, in a way that is roughly analogous to Hebrew

Kabbalah Kabbalah or Qabalah ( ; , ; ) is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. It forms the foundation of Mysticism, mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ...

Etymology

The etymology of ''kotodama'' is uncertain, but one explanation correlating words and events links two Japanese words pronounced ''koto'': this "word; words; speech" and 事 "situation; circumstances; state of affairs; occurrence; event; incident". These two ''

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

'' were used interchangeably in the name

Kotoshironushi , also known as , is a Shinto ''kami''. In the ''Kojiki'', Kotoshironushi is the son of Ōkuninushi, the earthly deity of Izumo province. When the heavenly deities sent Takemikazuchi to conquer Izumo, Ōkuninushi deferred the decision over whethe ...

or , an oracular ''

kami are the Deity, deities, Divinity, divinities, Spirit (supernatural entity), spirits, mythological, spiritual, or natural phenomena that are venerated in the traditional Shinto religion of Japan. ''Kami'' can be elements of the landscape, forc ...

'' mentioned in the ''

Kojiki The , also sometimes read as or , is an early Japanese chronicle of myths, legends, hymns, genealogies, oral traditions, and semi-historical accounts down to 641 concerning the origin of the Japanese archipelago, the , and the Japanese imperia ...

'' and ''

Nihon Shoki The or , sometimes translated as ''The Chronicles of Japan'', is the second-oldest book of classical Japanese history. It is more elaborate and detailed than the , the oldest, and has proven to be an important tool for historians and archaeol ...

''. ''Kotodama'' is related with Japanese words such as ''kotoage'' "words raised up; invoke the magical power of words", ''kotomuke'' "directed words; cause submission though the power of words", and ''jumon'' "magic spell; magic words; incantation".

Mythology

''Kotodama'' is a central concept in

Japanese mythology Japanese mythology is a collection of traditional stories, folktales, and beliefs that emerged in the islands of the Japanese archipelago. Shinto traditions are the cornerstones of Japanese mythology. The history of thousands of years of contac ...

Shinto , also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as ...

, and

Kokugaku was an academic movement, a school of Japanese philology and philosophy originating during the Edo period. scholars worked to refocus Japanese scholarship away from the then-dominant study of Chinese, Confucian, and Buddhist texts in favor of ...

. For example, the ''Kojiki'' describes an ''ukei'' (or ''seiyaku'') "covenant; trial by pledge" between the sibling gods

Susanoo __FORCETOC__ Susanoo (, ; historical orthography: , ), often referred to by the honorific title Susanoo-no-Mikoto (), is a in Japanese mythology. The younger brother of Amaterasu, goddess of the sun and mythical ancestress of the Japanese im ...

and

Amaterasu , often called Amaterasu () for short, also known as and , is the goddess of the sun in Japanese mythology. Often considered the chief deity (''kami'') of the Shinto pantheon, she is also portrayed in Japan's earliest literary texts, the () ...

, "Let each of us swear, and produce children." Uttering the divine words of the

divination Divination () is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic ritual or practice. Using various methods throughout history, diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a should proceed by reading signs, ...

ritual known as '' ukehi'' supposedly determines results, and in this case, Amaterasu giving birth to five male deities proved that Susanoo's intentions were pure.

Martial arts

''Kototama'' or ''kotodama'' is also fundamental to

Japanese martial arts Japanese martial arts refers to the variety of martial arts native to the country of Japan. At least three Japanese terms (''budō'', ''bujutsu'', and ''bugei'') are used interchangeably with the English phrase Japanese martial arts. The usage ...

, for instance, in the use of

kiai In Japanese martial arts a is a short shout uttered when performing an assault. Traditional Japanese dojo generally uses single syllables beginning with a vowel. The practice has become a part of Asian martial arts in popular culture, esp ...

Morihei Ueshiba was a Japanese martial artist and founder of the Japanese martial art, martial art of aikido. He is often referred to as "the founder" or , "Great Teacher". The son of a landowner from Tanabe, Wakayama, Tanabe, Ueshiba studied a number of ...

, the founder of

aikido Aikido ( , , , ) is a gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art which is split into many different styles including Iwama Ryu, Iwama Shin Shin Aiki Shuren Kai, Shodokan Aikido, Yoshinkan, Renshinkai, Aikikai, and Ki Aikido. Aikido is now practic ...

and a student of Deguchi, used ''kototama'' as a spiritual basis for his teachings. William Gleason says Ueshiba "created aikido based on the ''kototama'' principle," and quotes him that "Aikido is the superlative way to practice the ''kototama''. It is the means by which one realizes his true nature as a god and finds ultimate freedom." Mutsuro Nakazono, a disciple of Ueshiba, wrote books on the importance of ''kototama'' in aikido, such as ''The Kototama Principle'' in 1983.

Equivalences

While other cultures have parallels to ''kotodama'', such as

mantra A mantra ( ; Pali: ''mantra'') or mantram (Devanagari: मन्त्रम्) is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words (most often in an Indo-Iranian language like Sanskrit or Avestan) belie ...

, yanling,

mana Mana may refer to: Religion and mythology * Mana (Oceanian cultures), the spiritual life force energy or healing power that permeates the universe in Melanesian and Polynesian mythology * Mana (food), archaic name for manna, an edible substance m ...

, and

logos ''Logos'' (, ; ) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric, as well as religion (notably Logos (Christianity), Christianity); among its connotations is that of a rationality, rational form of discourse that relies on inducti ...

, some Japanese people believe the "word spirit" is unique to the Japanese language. One of the classical

names of Japan The word ''Japan'' is an endonym and exonym, exonym, and is used (in one form or another) by many languages. The Japanese language, Japanese names for Japan are () and (). They are both written in Japanese using the kanji . Since the third ce ...

is , a phrase that originated in the ''

Man'yōshū The is the oldest extant collection of Japanese (poetry in Classical Japanese), compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period. The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The compiler, or the last in ...

''.

* * Cledonism * Dōongo / ''Dōon Igigo'' ( 同音語 / 同音異義語, lit. "Like-Sound Utterance" / "Like-Sound Different-Meaning Utterance")—Homophones, while not a-part of ''Shinto''-in-&-of-themselves, occur in many things that are considered lucky are considered-so ''because'' they are homophones of things that are lucky (i.e. ''Jū Nana'' meaning, both 'great wealth'/'prosperity' and the number #17), and, likewise, many things that are considered unlucky are considered-so ''because'' they are homophones of things that are unlucky (i.e. ''Shizan'' meaning, both, '

stillborn Stillbirth is typically defined as fetal death at or after 20 or 28 weeks of pregnancy, depending on the source. It results in a baby born without signs of life. A stillbirth can often result in the feeling of guilt or grief in the mother. T ...

' and the number #43). See also ''

Tetraphobia Tetraphobia () is the practice of avoiding instances of the digit . It is a superstition most common in East Asian nations and is associated with death. Rationale The Chinese word for "four" (, pinyin: sì, jyutping: sei3) sounds quite simi ...

'', '' Japanese superstitions'' and ''

Onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia (or rarely echoism) is a type of word, or the process of creating a word, that phonetics, phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Common onomatopoeias in English include animal noises such as Oin ...

''. *

Linguistic relativity Linguistic relativity asserts that language influences worldview or cognition. One form of linguistic relativity, linguistic determinism, regards peoples' languages as determining and influencing the scope of cultural perceptions of their surro ...

* Law of contagion *

Magic word Magic words are phrases used in fantasy fiction or by Magic (illusion), stage magicians. Frequently such words are presented as being part of a Divine language, divine, Adamic language, adamic, or other Twilight language, secret or Language of t ...

Mantra A mantra ( ; Pali: ''mantra'') or mantram (Devanagari: मन्त्रम्) is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words (most often in an Indo-Iranian language like Sanskrit or Avestan) belie ...

Norito are liturgical texts or ritual incantations in Shinto, usually addressed to a given ''kami''. History The first written documentation of ''norito'' dates to 712 CE in the ''Kojiki'' and 720 CE in the ''Nihongi''. The Engishiki, a compilation ...

* Om **

Om mani padme hum ' (, ) is the six-syllabled Sanskrit mantra particularly associated with the four-armed Shadakshari form of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. It first appeared in the Mahayana ''Kāraṇḍavyūha sūtra'', where it is also referr ...

Shabda ''Shabda'' (, ) is the Sanskrit word for "speech sound". In Sanskrit grammar, the term refers to an utterance in the sense of linguistic performance. History In classical Indian philosophy of language, the grammarian Katyayana stated that ''s ...

Sympathetic magic Sympathetic magic, also known as imitative magic, is a type of Magic (paranormal), magic based on imitation or correspondence. Similarity and contagion James George Frazer coined the term "sympathetic magic" in ''The Golden Bough'' (1889); Rich ...

True name A true name is a name of a thing or being that expresses, or is somehow identical to, its true nature. The notion that language, or some specific sacred language, refers to things by their true names has been central to philosophical study as we ...

References

External links

Kotodama
Encyclopedia of Shinto
KOTODAMA
Encyclopedia of Aikido
Kotodama: The Power of Words
A Videogame that teaches Japanese, Carnegie Mellon {{Japanese social terms Japanese mythology Japanese words and phrases Language and mysticism Shinto Vitalism