Ushi no toki mairi
Traditional Japanese method of laying a curse / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Ushi no toki mairi (Japanese: 丑の時参り, lit. "ox-hour shrine-visit") or ushi no koku mairi (丑の刻参り)[2] refers to a prescribed method of laying a curse upon a target that is traditional to Japan, so-called because it is conducted during the hours of the Ox (between 1 and 3 AM). The practitioner—typically a scorned woman[3][4]—while dressed in white and crowning herself with an iron ring set with three lit candles upright, hammers nails into a sacred tree (神木, shinboku) of the Shinto shrine. In the modern-day common conception, the nails are driven through a straw effigy[lower-alpha 1] of the victim, impaled upon the tree behind it.[4][5] The ritual must be repeated seven days running, after which the curse is believed to succeed, causing death to the target,[6] but being witnessed in the act is thought to nullify the spell.[7] The Kifune Shrine in Kyoto is famously associated with the ritual.[8]
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Also variously called ushi no toki mōde (丑の時詣で), ushi mairi (丑参り), ushimitsu mairi (丑三参り).[9][10]