The Representation of Shrine Shamans at Gion Shrine in Illustrated Historical Documents

Abstract

In medieval times there was a group of shrine shamans called “katabaya-miko” at Gion or Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto. The aim of this article is to reconstruct how they lived from illustrated historical documents. As the illustrations tell us vividly, the shamans, both female and male, were socially and economically independent because they earned good income from selling talismans and giving names to newborn babies.