Yorishiro

To perceive the presence of more subtle kami that appeared only as a tremor of intuition, some sort of special apparatus was necessary─a kind of “visitation device”─and the classic form this took was the yorishiro.

The essence of the deities is expressed in the movement of invisible information. Such information manifests or appears to us after traveling from across the mountains or sea, and then returns from whence it came. Japanese deities─the kami─must be both welcomed and given a proper send-off. They’re not much inclined to move unless called. So two basic methods were developed to accomplish this. The first was to prepare a yorishiro, a device that could subtly mark the visitation of a divinity. The archetype of the yorishiro was a carefully selected tree. But the fickle Japanese gods do not necessarily content themselves with such specified destinations, and might alight and inhabit a myriad of different objects. Japanese deities are present in such numbers that they were traditionally counted as yaoyorozu no kami, the “eight million gods.”

Another method was to imagine deities assuming human form─as marebito, or strangers─to be greeted with courtesy, hospitality, and lively entertainment. The deities were greeted as “guests” coming from afar, honored here for a brief time, and then sent off once more to return to their distant homes. The various styles of welcoming and sending off the arriving and departing deities in different parts of the country are the origin of many of Japan’s performing arts traditions.