I was wondering if I can keep checking back to see where you get with this? I love "research" related to anime and/or existentialism (and cross-referencing!!) and this sounds fun to me ...lately all my friends are consumed by general world history stuffs, re: hetalia, and I'm just not into it, so I've been wandering LJ looking for interesting people, and I'm totally psyched this is actually defined as a "collection of interesting people", I'd like to stalk you a little if that's OK (I already added as a friend so I didn't loose track of you(s), not to be creepy (^_
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Tibet has a 'spirit knife' of a most peculiar shape. There's a description here including a reference to how they can be used in ritual exorcism of a demon. I know this is Buddhist, but it DOES show that such things existed. Possibly it's been borrowed and the idea shifted to a more familiar shape.
>> Possibly it's been borrowed and the idea shifted to a more familiar shape.
This is what I'm thinking, now that I've seen all these wonderful examples. Certain myths and religious practices seem to float from one Asian country to another with the local culture being applied to it. The katana is the sword of the samurai, who are very important to Japanese history, so it seems natural that this type of sword could become ritually significant for banishing or controlling spirits or demons. I haven't studied enough on Buddhism in Japan to know if they actually use katana this way in their rituals, but they do use it a lot in their entertainment, which works well enough for me and my story. :D
Quite possibly tangental, but what springs to my mind is Fudo Myoo, who is always pictured with a vajra sword (to banish demons [ignorance] and protect believers). He's very fearsome-looking and images of him are pretty popular in the Buddhist temples in my area because of our history of Shugendo, which also has a history of mysticism and exorcism. (The second link contains a description of a typical (I guess) exorcism. No swords involved!)
To have a less specific take on it, and I'm not sure about this, but... Samurai are socially approved fighters. Monks, women, and peasants are not really supposed to fight - so you see them fighting evil once in a while, but it's generally a one-time thing, or it's not really a 'fight.' (ie, it's a series of priestly ceremonies.) Save the village from the monster, make your fortune, never fight again.
So in mythology, samurai do most of the fighting. And samurai generally fight with katanas. Because a katana is a very recognizable symbol of samurai, one of those 'weird' fighters often has a katana, to show that they're taking on a 'samurai' role. Their fighting is also socially approved - it's good, and they're the hero.
So if any demon gets killed, it's probably killed by a katana. It's not a big jump from there to creating fictional ghost-killing swords, especially with the tradition of named, sometimes magical, swords.
a legendary sword
anonymous
June 11 2011, 07:23:33 UTC
well, i found this post searching info on a sword who might be of interest for your question, the onikiri , aka doujigiri made by yasutsuna, who was wielded by the samurai Minamoto no Yorimitsu. legends on him says he slayed a tsuchigumo, cut off an oni´s arm, and beheaded a legendary oni named shuten-dōji. the sword is located now in the national museum of japan. "One of the Five Swords under Heaven (天下五剣), legendary sword with which Minamoto no Yorimitsu killed the oni Shuten-dōji (酒呑童子) living near Mount Oe."
Re: a legendary swordsailorhathorJune 11 2011, 09:47:07 UTC
That IS extremely helpful, especially since Onikiri essentially means "Demon Cutter/Demon Slayer." WOW. The whole ghost/demon killing sword thing makes perfect sense after all these great responses.
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>> Possibly it's been borrowed and the idea shifted to a more familiar shape.
This is what I'm thinking, now that I've seen all these wonderful examples. Certain myths and religious practices seem to float from one Asian country to another with the local culture being applied to it. The katana is the sword of the samurai, who are very important to Japanese history, so it seems natural that this type of sword could become ritually significant for banishing or controlling spirits or demons. I haven't studied enough on Buddhism in Japan to know if they actually use katana this way in their rituals, but they do use it a lot in their entertainment, which works well enough for me and my story. :D
I love this community. I'm going to marry it.
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So in mythology, samurai do most of the fighting. And samurai generally fight with katanas. Because a katana is a very recognizable symbol of samurai, one of those 'weird' fighters often has a katana, to show that they're taking on a 'samurai' role. Their fighting is also socially approved - it's good, and they're the hero.
So if any demon gets killed, it's probably killed by a katana. It's not a big jump from there to creating fictional ghost-killing swords, especially with the tradition of named, sometimes magical, swords.
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"One of the Five Swords under Heaven (天下五剣), legendary sword with which Minamoto no Yorimitsu killed the oni Shuten-dōji (酒呑童子) living near Mount Oe."
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