Editing Shinto (section)

===Spirit mediumship and healing===
[[File:Inako 2006-10-09.jpg|thumb|An {{lang|ja-Latn|itako}} at the autumn Inako Taisai festival at [[Mount Osore]], Aomori Prefecture, Japan]]
Shinto practitioners believe that the {{lang|ja-Latn|kami}} can possess a human being and then speak through them, a process known as {{lang|ja-Latn|kami-gakari}}.{{sfn|Bocking|1997|pp=85–86}} Several new religious movements drawing upon Shinto, such as [[Tenrikyo]] and [[Oomoto]], were founded by individuals claiming to be guided by a possessing {{lang|ja-Latn|kami}}.{{sfn|Bocking|1997|p=86}} The {{lang|ja-Latn|takusen}} is an [[oracle]] that is passed from the {{lang|ja-Latn|kami}} via the medium.{{sfn|Bocking|1997|p=197}}

The {{lang|ja-Latn|[[itako]]}} and {{lang|ja-Latn|ichiko}} are blind women who train to become [[mediumship|spiritual mediums]], traditionally in Japan's northern [[Tohoku]] region.{{sfn|Bocking|1997|p=63}} {{lang|ja-Latn|Itako}} train under other {{lang|ja-Latn|itako}} from childhood, memorialising sacred texts and prayers, fasting, and undertaking acts of severe asceticism, through which they are believed to cultivate supernatural powers.{{sfn|Bocking|1997|p=63}} In an initiation ceremony, a {{lang|ja-Latn|kami}} is believed to possess the young woman, and the two are then ritually "married". After this, the {{lang|ja-Latn|kami}} becomes her tutelary spirit and she will henceforth be able to call upon it, and a range of other spirits, in the future. Through contacting these spirits, she is able to convey their messages to the living.{{sfn|Bocking|1997|p=63}} {{lang|ja-Latn|Itako}} usually carry out their rituals independent of the shrine system.{{sfn|Bocking|1997|pp=63–64}} Japanese culture also includes spiritual healers known as {{lang|ja-Latn|ogamiya-san}} whose work involves invoking both {{lang|ja-Latn|kami}} and Buddhas.{{sfn|Bocking|1997|p=136}}