ABSTRACT
Buddhist monks. Today, we find the same custom in rites of folk religion throughout Japan, often under the name nagashi-hina (‘dolls set adrift’).
Another ritual element of Chinese origin that soon gained prominence in kami ritual is the use of amulets and exorcist tablets (jufu). Such tablets, which have their roots in Chinese Taoist and folk practice, were introduced to Japan as early as the Nara period, and later spread through Shugendo and Yoshida Shinto (see Chapter 3).67 Magical spells and inscriptions from the continent formed a central part of the practice of
Ema are paintings of horses on wood, offered to shrines or temples. Their origin can be traced back to the ancient custom of offering living horses to the kami. The practice of sacrificing oxen and horses and offering them to the gods originated on the continent, and references to it can be found already in the first-century History of the Early Han (Hanshu). In Japan, such sacrifices are mentioned in the Nihon shoki (in the chapter on Empress Ko¯gyoku). It is a matter of controversy when such rituals were introduced to Japan, but we know that in times of drought oxen and horses were sacrificed and offered to the ‘kami of Han’ (kanjin), and that such sacrifices were common in villages during the Nara period.
