Both of these definitions omit noroi, a kind of magic which is defined, not very correctly, as "doing injury to others by praying to Kami and Buddhas." Prayer is not a magical procedure per se.
"Oh Lord our God arise,
Scatter his enemies
And make them fall"
is not a magical formula. Probably all these definitions have their source in the European studies of the lexicographers.
Majinai and noroi correspond roughly to our white and black magic. R. L. Stevenson says that "white magic doth naught with the devil, only the powers of numbers, herbs and plants." In Japan, Satan is conspicuous by his absence. His place is to some extent taken by the Fox, the Badger, and the Dog, whose supernatural powers are used by the Japanese magician for evil purposes. It is true that there are oni (demons) of Buddhist origin, but their relation to the magician is different. Magic protects against the oni, and does not make use of him. There is mention in old Japanese books of "men who had foxes in their service in order to exercise magic power."[1] Nobody will marry into families where there are these kitsune-tsukai (fox-users). Dog-sorcery (inu-gami, i.e. dog-god) is described by the great Shintoist writer Motoöri as follows:—"A hungry dog is tied up in sight of food which he is not allowed to eat. When his desire is keenest his head is cut off, and at once flies to seize the food. This head is put into a vessel and worshipped: a serpent or a weasel will do as well." Motoöri does not tell us for what purpose this kind of sorcery was practised. It reminds us of Horace's Canidia (Epode v.), who made a love-philtre from the marrow and liver of a boy who had been buried up to the neck and starved to death of hunger in sight of food changed two or three times a day. There are other cases in Japanese story of the materialization and transference of pain or passion. No doubt we should place in this class the case of Susa no wo, the Rain Storm God,[2] the climax to
- ↑ I quote from "The Fox and Badger in Japanese Folklore," by Dr. M. W. de Visser, in Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. xxxvi., Part 3. This and other papers by the same author are indispensable for the study of Japanese folklore.
- ↑ [Or, according to the Nihongi, god of the sea, or of the Netherworld.—Ed.]
