From Deer Bones to Turtle Shells: The State Ritualization of Pyro-Plastromancy during the Nara-Heian Transition
This article reviews received and recovered evidence of divination with bone and fire in early Japan to identify and investigate a shift from deer scapulae to turtle shells that took place during the Nara-Heian transition, particularly within the state cult. It questions why this shift occurred and...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Nanzan Institute
[2015]
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| In: |
Japanese journal of religious studies
Year: 2015, Volume: 42, Issue: 2, Pages: 339-380 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Yoshida, Family
/ Japan
/ Fortune-telling
/ Fire ritual
/ Bones
/ Deer
/ Skull
/ Turtles
/ Tanks (Military science) (Zoology)
/ History 700-930
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| IxTheo Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AG Religious life; material religion BM Chinese universism; Confucianism; Taoism BN Shinto KBM Asia TF Early Middle Ages |
| Further subjects: | B
Omens
B Heian period B Diviners B Family names B Religious Studies B Religious rituals B Shintoism B Divinity B Clans |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | This article reviews received and recovered evidence of divination with bone and fire in early Japan to identify and investigate a shift from deer scapulae to turtle shells that took place during the Nara-Heian transition, particularly within the state cult. It questions why this shift occurred and analyzes a detailed explanation of it found in a purportedly early Heian treatise on the divinatory cracking of turtle plastrons known as the Shinsen kisoki (Newly compiled record of turtle omens). The Shinsen kisoki claims to have been authored by a group of men descended from a common genealogical line of ancestral kami associated with divination. It not only reveals much about why members of a handful of related clans would have promoted a change from scapulimancy to plastromancy at this point in history, but also much about how the state ritualization of the latter affected, and was affected by, other changes in state and local religion and politics during the late Nara and early Heian periods. |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Japanese journal of religious studies
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