Ms. Taki Kudo says she has been able to connect with deities since she was six or seven years old. Even in modern Japan, mediums like Ms. Kudo are in demand, providing such traditional services as expelling a curse and invoking spirits for health and long life. At twice-annual rituals at Mt. Osore-Zan, she and other female spirit mediums allow the dead to speak through them, relaying insight, comfort and warnings from the deceased to their loved ones. Another important duty is caring for the mulberry-wood Oshirasama puppets representing individual souls. Ms. Kudo dresses and stores the puppets and performs the lively rites in which spirits come down from the mountain in order to protect and purify the people of her village - the deities are cajoled by offerings of food, lights, money and candy.

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