Outwith: Sightings of mediums rare as the witches of old burn out
By MARTIN FACKLER IN MOUNT OSORE, JAPAN
ITS name means the Mountain of Horror, which seems an apt description for this sacred Buddhist site inside the crater of a dormant volcano.
The weather-beaten temple here is surrounded by a lifeless lake and a wasteland of naked rock reeking of sulphur that conjures images of Buddhist hell.
But during the mountain's twice-annual religious festivals, visitors come by the busload to linADVERTISEMENTe up before a row of small tents in a corner of the temple. Within are the "itako" – elderly, often blind women who hold seance-like ceremonies that customers hope will allow them to commune with spirits of the dead.
These spiritual mediums seem out of place in a hyper-modern nation better known for bullet trains and hybrid cars. Found only in peripheral areas like this volcano on the far northern tip of Japan's main island, and only dimly known to most Japanese, the itako are among the last remaining adherents of ancient shamanistic beliefs that date from before Buddhism and modern forms of Shintoism, Japan's two main religions.
Now, however, even these last remaining itako are vanishing. Only four greying itako appeared at Mount Osore's week-long summer festival this year, three having died of old age in the past year. Worse, the only practising medium younger than retirement age – 40-year-old Keiko Himukai, known among believers as "the last itako" – stopped coming this year for health reasons.
"We can see a very ancient flame dying out before our eyes," Himukai said. "But traditions have to change with the times."
Now there are so few itako that visitors routinely wait in line for several hours to see one. Itako charge 3,000 yen, or about £20, for each spirit called in a roughly 10-minute ceremony.
One family of three came from Tokyo, a day's drive away. Masako Toyama, 68, said she came to speak to her husband, who died suddenly last summer of cancer. She, her son and his wife said it was their first visit to Mount Osore. She said she knew of the itako from growing up in northern Japan.
"They were a scary but also soothing presence," Toyama said. "Japanese still need this sort of emotional support."
"I wanted to give the itako a try, to see if this is real," said her 41-year-old son, Shinji Toyama, who works for a medical testing firm.
When the Toyamas' turn finally came after six and a half hours of waiting, they seemed almost taken aback by the itako's modern appearance, with her pink-tinted glasses and flower-patterned shirt.
The itako, Setsu Aoyama, began by lifting a long strand of dark beads and began a short chant: "I call the spirit who died on 11 July," the date Toyama's husband Shigeto died.
In the same rhythmic cadence, swaying her head with eyes shut, she assumed the voice of Shigeto.
"I didn't go to a doctor soon enough," she intoned. "Men don't listen to things like that."
Himukai, the 40-year-old itako, claimed she enters a trance in which she feels the presence of the spirit and its mood, which she expresses in her own words. She said she decided to begin the three-year period of study to become a spiritual medium as a teenager, after an itako near her rural village cured her of an ailment doctors could not fix.
She said she felt guilty about not going to Mount Osore. However, she said she may no longer be able to attend because of health problems, including a chronic stomach problem. Instead, she said she wanted to write a book or make a movie about the itako.
"The end can also be the beginning of something new," said Himukai, clad in a plain grey suit and speaking in a whisper.
After the ceremony, the Toyamas had mixed reactions. The widow said she had been put at ease. But the younger generation seemed less convinced.
"I didn't feel like it was really my father in front of me," said son Shinji. Still, he said he wanted to come again next year, to try a different itako. "Maybe we just had beginner's bad luck by choosing the wrong one."
http://news.scotsman.com/opinion/Outwit ... 5579660.jp
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