My Happy Marriage is an anime series based on a manga sharing the same name detailing the lives of supernatural ability users in early 1900s Japan. Given the use of magic by way of origami, could Shintoism and origami have played a bigger role in Japan’s past?
Origami, Paper Seals, and Magic in My Happy Marriage
A while ago now, I wrote about the source from which anime witches like Natsume Takashi, Kaname Madoka, and even Gin from Mushishi gain their magical powers.
A tsukimono, or “possessing thing” is attributed to their supernatural abilities, and can be passed down through family’s generation by generation. A familiar in the form of a cat, a snake, or other animals can also be employed – but the tsukimono is always the thing from which the power is derived; it is always the witch’s true power source.
The Use of Cherry Blossom Trees as Tsukimono
Usuba Sumi used cherry blossoms in a similar fashion to a tsukimono. This is nothing new in terms of history relating to nature magic or even tree lore, as certain trees were, and are, still being planted and harvested for specific rituals and ailments today.
In My Happy Marriage, Miyo’s father Shinichi cut down the cherry blossom tree planted for Sumi after her death because it did not bloom in the springtime.
When Miyo goes to visit the Usuba clan home for the first time, she sees a cherry blossom in bloom despite Kudo mentioning that it should not be due to most trees losing their pink leaves and turning green in the summertime. Miyo found this familiar because her psychic abilities inherited from the Usuba clan bloodline were sealed at a cherry blossom tree, and during her awakening Miyo often saw her mother Sumi standing near a cherry blossom tree.
After the Saimori mansion is burned down, Miyo asked Kudo to take her to visit the ruins, as she felt her mother’s spirit was calling her to the cut down and now badly charred cherry blossom tree stump. When Miyo touches the tree stump, it disintegrates into ash – leaving behind a sort of magical dust that flies up into the air and signifies – in my opinion – the first portion of Sumi’s seal being broken in Miyo’s mind.
As I mentioned above, a tsukimono can be passed down from mother to child, and as such I believe the cherry blossom tsukemono was passed down from Sumi to Miyo after the seal was fully broken.
This is evidenced by Miyo’s safe place for her spirit in her mind no longer being depicted as pitch black murky waters, but a beautiful spring day with blue skies, clear waters, and a cherry blossom tree in full bloom after she rescues Kudo from the grotesqueries and Mikado in the Spirit World.
Origami Birds (and Ravens) as Tsukimono
Obviously, the Usuba clan head is powerful enough to use an actual raven to spy on Miyo’s development, but others in the series had other means. Both the Tatsuishi and Saimori clan seem to have access to paper origami birds as a method of espionage to spy on people. I don’t know if that is just the “default” method most families with spiritual abilities use, but I know I’ve seen it before.
In Natsume Yuujinchou, Natsume learns that most of the supernatural ability wielding families stay on the fringes of modern society, secluded in their own circles and out of the reach of the public. In My Happy Marriage, a story that takes place at least 60 years before Natsume Yuujinchou (or Hotarubi no Mori e for that matter), the supernatural bloodline families were already becoming scarce due to the subduing of the grotesqueries (or yokai) making it safer for the general public.
The new class under Kudo’s leadership at the academy even questioned why they were learning to fight grotesqueries, since their world was such a safe place.
Again, this is juxtaposed to something like Gin’s world in Mushishi, where it was common for those with the power and know-how to travel village by village to heal those afflicted by illness from the yokai causing it. Mushishi takes place somewhere in the mid to late 1800s mind you, given Gin’s attire of “strange” western clothes that make him seem otherworldly after contact with a yokai in his youth that took his eye, and left the other one green and his natural black Japanese hair white after the encounter.
During the Warring States Era of Japanese history (about 1467 – 1600s), yokai were also well-known and acknowledged by the public, and even called upon to prevent calamity or invoked during war times as is the case in Dororo. Even just before World War II in Hiroshima Japan, Yokai were still widely acknowledged in small seaside towns like Suzu’s from In This Corner of the World.
While we are on the subject of grotesqueries and yokai, I was reminded of Shin Sekai Yori (From the New World) when it was revealed that grotesqueries are simply supernatural ability users whose spirits turned vengeful after negative sentiment at the time of their death.
In Shin Sekai Yori, the magic users had to have an emotionally balanced life, otherwise they would turn into terrible creatures who eventually would be “put down” by other magic users so that their society could thrive as a whole. (The Usuba clan, anyone?)
I do wonder why so many supernatural ability users died with negative sentiments, and why the Usuba clan (who were basically the magical enforcers – or Uchiha clan of their universe) were without work and dwindling, despite being employed by the Mikado.
Usuba Arata was so desperate for a purpose in life, and seemed to resent that no supernatural ability users had gotten out of line in modern times. Then again, maybe the rouge actions of the Mikado trying to seize power for himself had something to do with that – as he was hell-bent on both the Usuba and Tatsuishi clan stopping the union between Kudo and Miyo.
So much so, that he broke his own laws by desecrating the grotesquerie graves and lost his spiritual ability of revelation as a result after facing Miyo in the Spirit Realm.
Circling back to the use of origami, paper charms are used to ward off curses in Shintoism, and we are all familiar with “Shide”, the paper shaped like lightening bolts used for purification underneath torii gates when entering a shrine.
I wonder if in the past, origami was used as a way to summon different avatar spirits of animals that served as tsukimono when summoned from the Spirit World by a user. And like a Sai character from Naruto Shippuden, the origami art or folded papers sprang to life to perform their duties before being destroyed or deactivated by the designated user.
(Like the girl that forms out of an origami crane in the My Happy Marriage Season 2 opening!)
For a few months now off and on, I’ve also been playing Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance and there’s a monster called ‘omikuji’ (like the fortunes tied to Shinto shrines when it’s bad luck) that can only be defeated (or “purified”) by fire.
I mention this because like Persona 5: Royal, (which is a fantastic game by the way for anybody out there who hasn’t played it yet) Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance takes a lot from world mythology and the bible.
Especially Da’at (called “Mementos” in P5) which is the realm of the dead in (Egyptian) mythology.
With that in mind, I’d like to think that given the Japanese Shinto belief that things living over 100 years develop a spirit, that the bad-luck omikuji are tied to the temple gates to “purify” them so that the bad energy does not release a spiritual monster – or vengeful ‘yokai’ – somewhere down along the line in time.
But, what do you think?
Do you think origami originally had its purpose rooted in Shinto mystic beliefs and ceremonies? Why do you think origami is still used today?
Leave your thoughts in the comment section below, we’d love to hear from you! Also be sure to follow us for more Anime Theories regarding Shintoism!
☆ In Asian Spaces
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