#itako

☆ [ pool trend ] ☆

fashionably late per usual 😎

—𝗂 𝗌𝖾𝖾 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝖺𝗍 𝗒𝗈𝗎𝗋 𝗆𝗈𝗌𝗍 𝗏𝗎𝗅𝗇𝖾𝗋𝖺𝖻𝗅𝖾, 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗂’𝗆 𝗇𝗈𝗍 𝗅𝖾𝖺𝗏𝗂𝗇𝗀 ♡

𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦 .ᐟ

𝘈𝘪𝘬𝘰 𝘐𝘯𝘶𝘻𝘶𝘬𝘢 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦.ᐟ

Kawase Hasui

Evening at Itako

OK, so I knew the spirit mediums in Ace Attorney had to be based on something, and smarter people have probably already talked about this at much greater length and with much better sources than just one wikipedia article... but I stumbled over this while reading about Earthbound, and this looks like the spirit medium tradition that Ace Attorney's mediums are based on.

Apparently, the itako ~spiritual tradition~ was pretty much explicitly created to give young blind girls a safe place in the world so they wouldn't be entirely dependent on their families. they were traditionally Married To A Deity and went around doing Shaman/Shrine Maiden Stuff. sometimes their communities would finance their training; sometimes they'd just get adopted by an older mentor. either way it has a lot of the elements the games mention, especially the beaded necklaces (traditional itako necklaces also have bones on them!) and the training that heavily involves cold water and fasting/avoidance of artificial heat/general deprivation.

itako were kind of looked down upon, especially after Westernization, because ~superstition~ and preying on grieving families. in some places itako occupied the same social strata as prostitutes and were one step above the "untouchable" burukamin. in other places they had some respect, but it definitely wasn't an Honoured Traditional Spiritual Practice the way the localization occasionally implies. the tradition's dying out because ... y'know, blind kids can just get an education the way anyone else can, and in the modern world most people know mediums are a scam. there's like 40 itako left total, they're all old ladies, and they mostly just perform for tourists these days.

honestly this cultural context adds an interesting layer of texture to how the spirit mediums get perceived by society at large that I wish the games got across better.

the weird place in Japanifornian society that "spirit mediums" occupy, where everyone knows they're Legit but no one really likes them, makes a lot more sense knowing the cultural context. being an itako was illegal at one point. Even if they were 100% legit, everyone know they were 100% legit, and no one had a problem proving their legitimacy? they're (traditionally) disabled young women in an extremely sexist and ableist culture, and most of their co-religionists are messed up to hell and back. no fucking wonder.