6 Original Japanese Magic Manuscripts, Manuscripts on wooden panels - curses on deities, tombs and temples, erotic rivalry, revenge and jealousy, prophecies - 1620

6 Original Japanese Magic Manuscripts on Wood

Manuscripts on wooden panels
curses on deities of the underworld

Places of discovery are tombs and temples,
erotic rivalry, revenge and jealousy, prophecies, burnings and executions

Size per wooden panel : 7,5cm x 5cm x 0,5cm


Cursed tablets are usually lead sheets with inscriptions, which were intended to serve the purpose of influencing persons or other living beings in their actions by magical-ritual means or with the help of a deity, to prevent them from their activities and to "bind" them or to harm them mentally or physically for a certain period of time, more rarely even to kill them. The request was either entrusted to deities of the underworld, who were supposed to perform the curse, or was already considered to have been implemented by the ritual treatment of the tablet alone. For this purpose, the inscribed slats were often rolled up, folded or pierced with nails. Injuries to the medium should be transferred to the cursed person in the sense of an analogy spell.

Most of the specimens were buried in special places such as tombs, temples or ponds. Hidden in this way, the messages were to reach only the invoked deities. Curse tablets were often used in legal disputes, but also against competitors in chariot races, in the theater or in business life. Erotic rivalry, jealousy or an erotically motivated desire for revenge were also the cause of the curses; some inscriptions, on the other hand, should attract the desired partner.


If the stolen goods are mentioned on the boards, they are often clothing, jewellery and cash, but also vessels, tools and animals. Capital crimes, on the other hand, are not mentioned in the "prayers for justice" received – they may have had a greater chance that the authorities would take up the crime and solve it.