Kirigami
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The kirigami were esoteric documents of the Sōtō school in medieval Japan which
- ...reflect a creative use of traditional kōan records integrated with popular religious themes such as devotion to local gods and the exorcism of demonic spirits."
For instance,
Some kirigami
- ...describe talismans that women had to carry or swallow to purify themselves from blood defilement when they attended religious ceremonies."
Kirigami were also
- ...'notes' or 'memos' transmitted from master to disciple together with oral or esoteric teachings; they included instructions in the various functions of a temple priest, including memorial services and necrologies, both of which were conducted with the explicit aim of perpetuating social discrimination."
Bernard Faure writes that the kirigami were
- ...documents whose diagrammatic aspect and ritual function bring to mind the prophetic scriptures (chanwei) of Confucian imperial ideology and Daoist talismans studied by Anna Seidel.
Steven Heine writes that,