People in the village of Monobe, Kochi Prefecture, nestled deep in the mountains, have passed down from generation to generation a mysterious folk religion that worships paper gods.
Izanagi-ryu, an eclectic sect mixing elements of Shinto and Buddhism, does not use permanent statues for worship. Instead, villagers create traditional images of the gods out of paper whenever they hold rituals: divination, prayers for the sick, worship of local deities, ancestors and mountain gods. Their 200 kinds of paper gods and spirits, each cut out of a single sheet of washi paper, bring a new dimension to religious art. Many take the form of gohei, the paper streamers attached to a wand familiar from more conventional Shinto ritual.
The art has been handed down by tayu, ritual experts, to their disciples. Each pattern has a name and is associated with a particular occasion. A number of spells and myths are chanted during the rituals.