Tsukumogami
Understood by many Western scholars[1] as a type of Japanese yōkai,[2] the Tsukumogami (付喪神) was a concept popular in Japanese folklore as far back as the tenth century,[3] used in the spread of Shingon Buddhism.[4] Today, the term is generally understood to be applied to virtually any object, “that has reached their 100th birthday and thus become alive and self-aware,”[citation needed] though this definition is not without its controversy.[5] [6] [7]
Contents |
[edit] Tsukumogami in Japanese Folklore
According to Elison and Bardwell (1987), Tsukumogami was the name of an animated tea caddy that Matsunaga Hisahide used to bargain a peace with Oda Nobunaga[8]
Like many concepts in Japanese folklore there are several layers of definition used when discussing Tsukumogami.[9] For example, by the tenth century, the Tsukumogami myths were used in helping to spread the “doctrines of Shingon Esoteric Buddhism to a variety of audiences, ranging from the educated to the relatively unsophisticated, by capitalizing upon pre-existing spiritual beliefs in Tsukumogami.”[10] These “pre-existing spiritual beliefs” were, as Reider explains:
- Tsukumogami are animate household objects. An otogizōshi (“companion tale”) titled Tsukumogami ki (“Record of tool specters”; Muromachi period) explains that after a service life of nearly one hundred years, utsuwamono or kibutsu (containers, tools, and instruments) receive souls. While many references are made to this work as a major source for the definition of tsukumogami, insufficient attention has been paid to the actual text of Tsukumogami ki. [11]
By the twentieth century the Tsukumogami had entered into Japanese popular culture to such an extent that the Buddhist teachings had been “completely lost to most outsiders,”[12] leaving critics to comment that, by and large, the Tsukumogami were harmless[citation needed] and at most tended to play occasional pranks[citation needed], they did have the capacity for anger and would band together to take revenge upon those who were wasteful or threw them away thoughtlessly[citation needed]. To prevent this, to this day some jinja ceremonies[citation needed] are performed to console broken and unusable items.[citation needed]
[edit] Known Tsukumogami
- Abumi-guchi - A furry creature formed from the stirrup of a mounted military commander that works for Yama Orochi.
- Bakezōri - A possessed pair of straw zori sandals.
- Boroboro-ton - A possessed comforter.
- Chōchinobake - An animated lantern.
- Ichiren-bozu - Animated prayer beads.
- Ittan-momen - A roll of cotton.
- Jotai - Possessed cloths draped from folding screens.
- Kameosa - A possessed sake jar.
- Kasa-obake - An animated umbrella.
- Kosode-no-te - A possessed kimono robe.
- Kyōrinrin - Possessed scrolls or papers.
- Morinji-no-okama - A possessed tea kettle.
- Shirōneri - Possessed mosquito nettings or dust clothes.
- Ungaikyo - A possessed mirror.
- Yamaoroshi - A possessed grater.
- Zorigami - A possessed clock.
[edit] Difficulty in Finding a Definition
Because the term has been applied to several different concepts in Japanese folklore, there remains some confusion as to what the term actually means. [13] [14]
For example, literally, Tsukumogami is translated as “old woman hair,” [15] though other scholars have defined it as “pasqueflower”[16] as well. This comes from a tenth-century poem:
Momotose ni/ Hitotose taranu/ Tsukumogami/ Ware wo kourashi/ Omokage ni miyu.[17]
All of this is pointed out in detail by Indiana University Professor Michael Dylan Foster who writes that this question “[of defining Tsukumogami] often elicits not even a definition at all, but simply a long list of examples.”[18] In other words, modern Tsukumogami scholars have done Japanese folklore a disservice by including “vague, contradictory and often simply grossly inaccurate [information] ... that has nothing to do with ancient folklore, Buddhism or even Japan and everything to do with the 'modern mangaka' craze ... comic books produced in sweat-shops in Korea and marketed for American audiences ... that often have nothing to do with history or Japan.”[19]
[edit] References
- ^ Motokiyo, 195
- ^ Classiques de l'Orient, 193.
- ^ Reider, 207.
- ^ ibid.
- ^ Classiques de l'Orient, 194
- ^ Foster, 7
- ^ Motokiyo, 195
- ^ Elison and Bardwell, 213
- ^ Classiques de l'Orient, 194
- ^ Reider, 207-08.
- ^ Reider, 207
- ^ Guo, 324.
- ^ Classiques de l'Orient, 194
- ^ Motokiyo, 195
- ^ Hadamitzky, 339
- ^ Matisoff, 256.
- ^ Translation by McCullough: The lady with thinning hair —/ But a year short/ Of a hundred —/ Must be longing for me,/ For I seem to see her face. page 110.
- ^ Foster, 7
- ^ Guo, 325-26
Classiques de l'Orient: Volume 5. (1921)
Elison, George and Bardwell L. Smith. Warlords, artists, & commoners: Japan in the sixteenth century. University of Hawaii Press. (1987)
Foster, Michael Dylan. Pandemonium and parade: Japanese monsters and the culture of yōkai. University of California Press. (2009)
Guo, Leilani. Baka Histoire: le détournement de la mythologie japonaise dans les films, comices et nasties vidéo. Article taken from “Gaijin Culture.” Solange, Marie and Takehiko Kyo (eds). Kagoshima: Nishinoomote News Press (1984)
Hadamitzky, Wolfgang and Mark Spahn. The Kanji Dictionary: Find Any Compound Using Any of Its Component Characters. Tuttle Publishing. (2000)
Matisoff, Susan. The legend of Semimaru, blind musician of Japan. (2006)
McCullough, Helen Craig. Tales of Ise: lyrical episodes from tenth-century Japan: Volume 1. Stanford University Press. (1968)
Motokiyo, Kwanze. Cinq nô: drames lyriques japonais. Bossard. (1921)
Reider, Noriko T. Animating Objects: Tsukumogami ki and the Medieval Illustration of Shingon Truth. Asian Folklore Studies 64. (2005): 207–31.
[edit] Suggested Reading
Kabat, Adam. “Mono” no obake: Kinsei no tsukumogami sekai. IS 84 (2000): 10–14.
Kakehi, Mariko. Tsukumogami emaki no shohon ni tsuite. Hakubutsukan dayori 15 (1989): 5–7.
Keene, Donald. Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century. New York: Henry Holt & Co. (1993)
Kyoto Daigaku Fuzoku Toshokan. Tsukumogami http://edb.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/exhibit/tsuroll /indexA.html and http://edb.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/exhibit/tsuroll/indexB.html
Lillehoj, Elizabeth. Transfiguration : Man-made Objects as Demons in Japanese Scrolls. Asian Folklore Studies, Volume 54 (1995): 7–34.
National Geographic. National Geographic Essential Visual History of World Mythology. National Geographic Society (U.S.) (2008)
Shibata, Hōsei. Tsukumogami kaidai. In Kyoto Daigaku-zō Muromachi monogatari , ed. Kyoto Daigaku Kokugogaku Kokubungaku Kenkyūshitsu, vol. 10, 392–400. Kyoto: Rinsen Shoten. (2001)
|
||||||||||||||||||||
