What Is Kotodama?

Date: January 24, 2012 • Categories: Uncategorized • Tags:


— Kotodama is an ancient belief in Japan and it still affects Japanese people’s daily life.

Our Words Have a Spirit Within

Although I have chosen a Japanese word Kotodama for my Web site name, I am not sure you are familiar with the meaning of this word as this word is not famous like other Japanese words such as Sushi or Samurai. So this time, I would like to give a brief lecture to explain what is a significance of this word, if you do not mind.

Kotodama per se consists of two Japanese Kanji symbols: Koto and dama (or sometime it’s referred as tama). The first word koto means words or languages; the other word dama describes spirits. Therefore, a literal meaning of Kotodama is the spirit of words or languages, but it’s often translated as the power of words in English.

The basic concept of Kotodama is quite simple. Every single word has its own spirit, and each spirit has a specific power which actually affects to this real world. A word with a positive sprit affects you or people around you in a positive manner, and a word with a negative spirit affects you or people around you in a negative manner. For example, if you use or speak a word with a positive spirit, that spirits would cause positive outcome to you, people around you or even the society you are belonging to. On the other hand, if you use or pronounce a word with a negative spirit, that spirit would harm you or people around you as well.

Though this is just one of ancient beliefs in Japan, it has rooted Japanese culture quite deeply. Many Japanese people still believe this concept consciously or even unconsciously. This concept is also strongly associated with Shinto practice; they use Kotodama during their ritual practices.

Do you think this belief sounds ridiculous to you? Yes, you could be right. But imagine, when someone shouts up dirty words to you, don’t you think it will be so uncomfortable? When your close friend tells you “thank you very much” or when your significant other whispers “I love you,” don’t you think you feel pleasant? Do you think cases like these are just matter of our cognitive functions in the brain? Who knows.

 

If you find this blog post useful, please share it with others.

 

Leave a Reply

http://kotodamastyle.com/blog/2012/01/what-is-kotodama/trackback/
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
Tags
kotodama Memo Twitter