The performing arts dedicated to the gods in Shinto rituals in the palace are collectively called “Mi-kagura”, and the most sacred and most profound musical ritual of this kagura is the Naishi-dokoro (Kashiko-dokoro) Mi-kagura, which is performed in front of the Kashiko-dokoro Shrine where the Yata-no-kagama Mirror, the Sacred Spirit of Amaterasu, is enshrined. However, the original image of the Imperial Mi-kagura in the palace is said to be a song and dance performed by Ama-no-uzume, who was almost naked and possessed while stomping on a bucket in front of the rock door of heaven, as described in Japan mythology. Her song and dance, which at first glance seems to be a vulgar form, is actually called “wazaogi” and is a magical act of “tamafuri” (activation of divine spirits) of Amaterasu.
This magic to activate Amaterasu was incorporated into the Chinkon-sai, which is a ritual to perform tamafuri for the emperor before the Niiname-sai. Several Chinkon-sai songs were sung to recall the soul of Amaterasu as the Ancestors of the Emperor, and each time a mysterious incantation-like song, “Ajime Ooooo”, was added to the beginning. It is believed that Ajime is a change of Uzume, and Ooooo is a warning incantation against confronting Amaterasu and performing magical rituals.
This incantation of Ajime was later adopted as the “Ajime-no-sahou Manner” in the Naishi-dokoro Mi-kagura, which was formed in the Heian period, and was inserted in the Mi-kagura in a different form about three times, and reunify songs in Mi-kagura as rituals directed to Amaterasu. The Naishi-dokoro Mi-kagura is a magnetic field that religiously unites the other imperial kagura and ritual songs and dances, and the Ajime manner, which is derived from the magic of tamafuri of Ama-no-uzume, is the crystallization of Shinto musical sensibilities.
