Shrines,Gods, And Yorishiro
TBHK has a lot of religious overtones for a series about supernaturals. I thought it was time for a fun discussion therefore, about kami and yorishiros. Warning: Super long and detailed post. I don't know what your criteria for long post is but yeah.
"God will forgive me for it."
The seven mysteries may be supernaturals, but they're also associated with Gods quite often. Even without Hanako's mentions of an unseen God who seems to be watching his actions, the mysteries themselves parallel gods sometimes: or more specifically, kami.
We've all heard the word "kamisama" in anime and manga enough, and "kami" would usually be translated as "god". But they can refer to spirits, to angels, to demons and a multitude of other things! The word kami thus embodies a lot more than just gods. They essentially are like supernaturals themselves, such kami.
Kami are believed to have two souls: a benevolent soul, and a darker, angrier soul. They're also said to have a soul that's visible and a soul that's hidden. I can't help but feel this parallels Tsukasa and Amane!
There are also good kami, and bad kami. Besides this, kami are believed to be of three types according to the realm. Citing Wikipedia:
Amatsukami (天擄ē„, the heavenly deities), Kunitsukami (å½ę“„ē„, the gods of the earthly realm), and ya-o-yorozu no kami (å
«ē¾äøć®ē„, countless kami).
Eight is the number of prosperity in japan! That is why you'll be seeing the kanji å
« (prnounched hachi or ya), or eight a lot, like the above in yaoyorozu. It's also the kanji in Yashiro's name, by the way.
Speaking of å
«, Hachiman (å
«å¹”ē„) was one of the more famous kami. Why did I bring him up, you ask? Well, other than being a god of war, he was originally an agricultural deity, who later became a holy protector of Japan! Not just Japan-- Hachiman was the guardian of the Minamoto clan! What an interesting resemblance to Yashiro: initially a simple girl who's interested in agriculture, but later becomes a divine protector-- a Kannagi! Perhaps she will watch over Kou (or Teru, who knows) in the near future?
Other than this, the animal associated with Hachiman is a dove-- a symbol of peace, something Yashiro has been entrusted with safekeeping. His symbol is a mitsudomoe-- a three headed tomoe, incidentally the shape of the magatama which Nene wears. But hey, maybe I'm reading too much into it.
There are numerous less known kami in shinto religion as well.
For example, toilet deities are a thing! That's right, for all his talk of an almighty God, Hanako resembles a god as well! Benjougami or kawaya no kami are gods of the toilet. They are said to help in childbirth, surprisingly, as well as soil fertility (since manure is used as fertiliser). You would think they help with more toilet related issues, but oh well.
To appease these toilet gods, people were sure to keep the washroom clean, or else the god would turn angry. As a Kannagi, Yashiro's job would be to appease a god. And she does exactly that-- by cleaning the toilets, she is appeasing Hanako. It's safe to say that if Yashiro, his ""cleaner"" as he says, should disappear or leave him, whoever is responsible will incur his wrath. Another way to keep these kami happy was to put flowers in the toilet. And lo, the girl's toilet has a vase of flowers (which, by the way, I always thought was an odd design choice, especially for a school bathroom. My initial theory was that perhaps they were kept out of respect for the students who died there, but now I think maybe it was more out of fear.)
Let's talk more about the "ropes" that have been there since day one (and I'll get to why that relates to kami in a second). They have been shown to be tied to Hanako, mainly, and also to Mitsuba and Yashiro. While people make a fair point when they talk about Amane having rope wounds when he was alive, the ropes we see on the covers seem to be more of a symbolic item.
So what do they symbolise? Well, a few people have speculated that they're ropes of death, since they seem to wrap around the deceased (or about to be deceased): and I agree! However, I want to delve more into this.
The ropes, to me, could be one of a couple of things.
One possibility is (and this is not that likely) they could be kumihimo-- Japanese braided cords. If you've watched Kimi No Na Wa or Your Name, you know what I'm talking about. They're said to encompass musubi, the divine energy binding the universe together. So perhaps it is this divine energy that binds the dead to their fate.
However, as poetic a concept that is, the braiding on the ropes in TBHK are not intricate enough for it to be kumihimo.
So here is the second possibility: shimenawa. They're thicker (I'm talking ultra thick sometimes) ropes that are found in shrines, mostly, or around a yorishiro (even a living yorishiro, in fact! Some sumo wrestlers have such a rope around their waist). They mark the point where mortals are no longer permitted to enter, and only kami can enter. To me, they're like the barrier between the near shore and far shore, and the ones shown tied by it are close to the far shore.
Plus, they're spelled as äøäŗäøēø, which has both the kanji for seven (like Hanako) and three (like Mistuba). It also has the kanji for five, mysteriously. Hm.
However, if you Google shimenawa in shrines, they usually have shide (zigzag paper used for holy purposes) attached to them, which the ropes in the manga do not. But if you look at the red and white shimenawa attached to bells in shrines, or the shimenawa used as wreaths on New Year's in Japan, they're nearly identical. Fun fact: one of the styles of shimenawa is described as "daikon-jime", a radish like shape!
As mentioned before, shimenawa are found around yorishiros. Let's talk a bit about yorishiros for a second.
Yorishiros are, in Shinto religion, objects that are believed to be occupied by gods. The song sung at the night camp during the current arc already refers to this! Common yorishiros include mirrors (like Mistuba) and magatama (like the clips on Nene's hair, interestingly). But people could also become possessed by gods: in that case, they were called yorimashi. So Tsukasa being a "yorishiro" is a bit of a misnomer!
Yorishiros are normally stored in shrines. So if it wasn't obvious enough from the torii gates in the boundaries, or all that talk about shimenawa and gods, a mystery's boundary is like its own shrine!
Also, very very interestingly, the word for shrine is ē„社, read as jinjya. However, in ancient texts, it can be read as Yashiro, aka, sacred place, aka, the name of our very own girl.Ā
In fact, 社 is the usual way to write Yashiro. AidaIro went out of their way to put the kanji for eight in her name. I wonder why that is: I'm personally a sucker for Yashiro becoming the eighth mystery.Ā
Anyway, that's all for now haha. Hopefully some of these info dumps was interesting to you.Ā