Onmyoudou and Ofuda: A Research Compendium

Kotodama introduction (hover for translation).
Thanks to Yoshino-san for the translation to Japanese!

Kotodama - The spirit of the word affects all around it with tremendous power to nurture harmony or war, create or destroy, and bring light or darkness. Speak or write each with utmost care and consideration | Tsuchimikado Yukitada

Tsuchimikado Yukitada a talented onmyouji, who specialized in Ofuda, saw the decline in call for his brand of magic. To ensure the knowledge wasn't lost, he wrote down all he knew.

One of his most notable contributions was the discovery of making a line through each character as it's written for a talisman, nullifies the spell. Now ofuda could be stored in a volume together with out causing mass chaos.
Before this, teachings on Kotodama, especially ofuda, were only handed down by word of mouth.

Though, not listed as an author, his wife helped him considerably with the book.
One way was proving safe shortcuts for making Ofuda. Though, Tsuchimikado was skeptical at first because all the magical shortcuts he knew lead to dark magic.
She also showed him that it was possible to create ofuda with less than ideal supplies (i.e. using mud instead of ink, using wood instead of paper). The Ki use just increases dramatically.

by Amy Winters-Voss

Type

Manual, Magical / Occult

Medium

Paper

Location

Nonogawa

Authors

• Tsuchimikado Yukitada

Date Written

1854-1877

References

Teachings from his wife's family are heavily referenced in the latter half of the book.