Japan’s “Scroll of the Hungry Ghosts”

No surprise, much more documentation survives regarding naming ceremonies for the wealthy versus regular people in Ancient and Medieval societies. This is certainly the case with Japanese history. Isn’t it fantastic, though, that amidst the paucity of evidence — I mean, we know *so* little about Japanese childbirth and naming practices — we at least have this hand-painted scroll from around 1200? Look closely, and you will see a creepy demon-figure crawling toward a baby, just born and lying amidst blood and after- birth.

This is the “Scroll of the Hungry Ghosts,” and the whole thing shows a belief in supernatural beings who threaten newborns, and a need for authoritative religious figures to protect both mother and child with rituals.

If you look at the second image you get a wider view of the scroll, where you can see a Buddhist monk with a shaved head and a rosary and a female medium (she has red trousers) serving as an assistant to the monk by acting as a guide through the turbulent spiritual plane inhabited by the wandering ghosts.

In Japan, rituals around naming were not always paired with childbirth, and indeed, they changed greatly over time. Often a child would even exchange one name for another as part of a child-to-adulthood ceremony in a ritual called Genpuku. At such times (ages 7-15) gender roles were more strongly asserted, marked by a special cap or samurai helmet for men, and a pleated skirt for women.