The Kitaro picture is written in red ink because it is believed the color red is effective in warding off evil. Japanese people believed the doll to be effective in repelling evil spirits from their children-in the era, the death rate of children from plague was higher than that of adults. At the time, the red paintings of Kintaro (a child of superhuman strength from Japanese folklore) were popular. Right, 麻疹養生之伝 ©Museum of Fine Arts, Boston There is the custom of giving ukiyo-e prints as presents for those who have fell ill, as a “get well” gift in Edo city and Osaka, and the surrounding farming villages. This kind of ukiyo-e, known as measles paintings( 麻疹絵) and herpes paintings( 疱瘡絵), which is contain wishes for curing illnesses and listed natural healing foods for diseases. It used these caricatures to redirect the citizens’ anger that under the restrictions to freedom of speech in the country, the Edo citizens were unable to criticize the authorities directly. This kind of creation must have been a reflection of the reaction to the inability of the government to effectively deal with the disorders. It is another example of this kind of faith which attempts to ward off plague. In some ukiyo-e prints below, the measles camp is confronted by the owners of yakata boats, sushi restaurants, and bathhouses, whose business has been disrupted by measles. Amabie recently became a current topic of conversation as a way to ward off the coronavirus. This fact shows that people were familiar with infectious diseases. To avoid contracting the plague, it is necessary to drive away these plague deities and ultimately keep them away completely, so a variety of charms, banners, curses, and rituals were established for this purpose.ĭuring the Edo period (1600-1868), there were many books, novels, ukiyo-e woodblock prints, and Kyoka poems ( 狂歌, which contain social satire, irony, and humor) written on the theme of epidemics. The imagined pestilence deities looked like demons or yokai (妖怪, Japanese monsters) and would haunt people or enter their homes to make them sick. In Japanese ancient times, it was believed that epidemics were caused by invisible beings such as “plague deities”.
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