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JAPAN’S REAL MAGICAL GIRLS: MIKO

By Patrick Drazen 1 year, 7 months ago

The “magical girl” tag is not a single genre of anime/manga; more like four or five genres. The classic “magical girls” are as close as Japan gets to western superheroes, complete with special powers, secret identities, and catch phrases. Best-known are the Bishojo Senshi (Beautiful Girl Warriors) of Sailor Moon and parodies and pastiches such as the girls of Tokyo Mew Mew and Magical Girl Pretty Sammy, who started in the Tenchi Muyo franchise before getting her own series. Some girls are literally built to have magical powers, from Major Kusanagi in Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell to the cyber-assassins in Gunslinger Girl. Some magical girls are literally that: magic-users who include the trainee witches in Ojamajo DoReMi and the supposedly non-magical students of Negi Springfield in Akamatsu’s Negima. And there are girls whose magic is undisputed but never really explained, such as the beautifully rendered sooty-winged angels in Abe’s Haibane Renmei.

Finally, there is a class of magical girl who, unlike the others, can easily be found in the flesh in almost every Japanese city and village: Shinto temple maidens, or miko.

Miko, assistants at Shinto shrines throughout Japan, have figured in fact and fancy, and sometimes it’s hard to keep the line straight between the two. Granted, most of the outrageous magical powers attributed to some miko are beyond belief; except that not all of these abilities were manufactured in the postwar period by manga and anime. In dealing with an aspect of life that encompasses what we call reality, plus a little bit more, we sometimes need to remember to keep an open mind.

Miko are usually the unmarried daughters of Shinto priests or sometimes parishioners whose role is to perform ceremonial dances for the spirits; they also sell souvenirs and perform more prosaic roles. The kanji __ means “shaman woman”. Dress is generally standardized: white blouse, red hakama (baggy pants).
One of the first references to miko is in Shinto’s creation mythology, the Kojiki, and tells of the goddess Uzume and her dance to lure Amaterasu out of the cave. Because Uzume performed a dance which caused the other gods to cheer and laugh so loudly that Amaterasu opened the cave to see what was happening, thus freeing the sun which Amaterasu had taken with her, miko are temple dancers, performing for the pleasure of the gods. Some anime miko are temple dancers, notably three generations of women in the Mima clan in Key the Metal Idol.

There are 69 euphemisms & synonyms in Japanese for miko, including itako (miko who in some prefectures are traditionally recruited from among the blind). Prominent historical miko include Queen Himiko, 3rd century ruler of Japan, and Izumo no Okuni, inventor of Kabuki theater.

Shinto is a celebration of life, of purity and fertility, and gives Japan its national identity. This offers a lot of scope for the symbolic use of miko in unintended ways in the popular culture.

Archery is associated with Japanese culture in dozens of ways, including Shinto kyudo (temple archery) and its emphasis on ceremony and meditation. Most of the archery practiced by anime miko is blatantly magical and plot-driven. The best-known examples are Kagome and Kikyo, miko from two different centuries who meet in the medieval Japan of InuYasha, and Hino Rei, who as Sailor Mars uses archery in the Flaming Sniper attack.
One of the most interesting recent pop culture miko is not affiliated with a particular temple. Ayako Matsuzaki is on the staff of Shibuya Psychic Research, a team of “ghostbusters” in Ghost Hunt, a manga by Inada Shiho based on a series of young people’s novels by Ono Fuyumi. The manga was later animated by Avex Entertainment and quickly became one of Japan’s Top Twenty anime.

Matsuzaki is an M.D., like both of her parents. Furthermore, at age 23 she’s not exactly a “maiden.” What makes her a miko is her ability since childhood to communicate with trees; more accurately, with the spirits they house. She developed this ability conversing with a large old camphor tree near her family home. Camphor trees, native to Japan and China, are venerated because of their height, longevity, and healing properties. Special powers are often ascribed to camphor trees, and the most powerful are designated with a shibenawa, a rope woven out of rice plants.

Such a camphor tree dominates the forest in My Neighbor Totoro, and serves as a home for the magical creature. The entire movie, it turns out, is a survey of Shinto imagery as well as a quintessential children’s film. But that’s another blog.