, also known as or , are blind women who train to become spiritual mediums in Japan. Training involves severe ascetic practices, after which the woman is said to be able to communicate with Japanese Shinto spirits, kami, and the spirits of the dead. Itako perform rituals tied to communication with the dead and divination. The practice has been on the decline, with only 20 living itako in Japan, all more than 40 years old.
Training for itako traditionally began at a very young age, and included ritualized exposure to cold water. Hundreds of buckets of ice water could be poured on their bodies over the course of a few days. This education for itako takes about three years, and also includes memorization of songs and sutras. At the end of this training, a ceremony is held, announcing the marriage of the itako and her patron spirit.
Scholars suggest that blindness has long been associated with spiritual powers in Japan. Furthermore, options for those with severe vision impairment to become self-sufficient were limited in ancient times. This led many families to send young blind women to itako apprenticeships up until the start of the Meiji era, which outlawed itako rituals outright.
Today, itako are most commonly associated with Mt. Osore in Aomori prefecture. There, itako gather for an annual festival to channel the dead for thousands of tourists. Itako perform ceremonies to communicate with spirits of the recently deceased, including those of aborted and stillborn children.
History
Itako are always blind, or have very poor vision. In pre-modern Japanese society, blindness was widely associated with spiritual capabilities; after the introduction of Buddhism, it was considered evidence of a karmic debt. These beliefs lent an aura of "ambiguous sacred status" to the blind. During the Edo era, women were expected to contribute to family wages. However, blind women of the era had limited opportunities to support themselves or their families. The reputation of blindness and spiritual abilities led many families to seek training for young girls, typically aged 11 to 13, in a folk religious tradition in which the young girl was wed to a deity, and there on able to communicate with spirits. Despite this power, blind women who became itako were still considered to occupy one of the lowest social strata within the community, especially those who relied on community support for financing their training.
Itako are thought to have risen from an ascetic cult of the Edo era, the yamabushi, male monks who were encountered during popular pilgrimages to the Kumano mountains in the 9th–10th centuries. These monks had wives who traveled with them, selling amulets and channeling the dead through trances. Meanwhile, women in the north performed the dances and rituals of shrine miko. Over time, the two groups merged, creating the modern concept of itako.
In 1873, the Meiji era government attempted to ban itako and their associated kuchiyose rituals as a means of encouraging the adoption of modernized medicine. An estimated 200 itako were practicing at the time. The law led to the arrest of mediums across Japan; by 1875, itako and their healing rituals were specifically targeted and could be arrested on sight. Arrests of itako were based on charges such as spreading superstition, to obstruction of medical practices. Newspaper accounts of these arrests indicate that itako were commonly attributing illnesses to possession of the ill by cats or foxes. Newspaper reports at the time tended to refer to itako in negative terms, and often associated the arrest of itako and the arrest of prostitutes. One editorial wrote, "These miko disgorge reckless and empty gossip, squeezing the pockets of the common people, and prostitutes tempt loose men and rob them of their money. While the professions are different, they are the same in disrupting public morals and deceiving people of their possessions."
Public support, however, continued. Shortly before, and after, the surrender of Japan in 1945, many families sought out itako to communicate with the war dead, particularly those who were lost in combat abroad. Just before the end of the war, itako were also called upon to conduct "living seances" (ikiguchi) with soldiers overseas. An editorial by intellectual Orikuchi Shinobu at the time noted that the itako in Aomori prefecture had "not been subject to prohibition", in contrast to itako and shaman in other prefectures, and that "persecution would be counterproductive". News stories reported locals occasionally interfering with the police attempts to arrest prominent itako.