Magatama
Magatama originally served as decorative jewelry, but by the end of the Kofun period functioned as ceremonial and religious objects.
[1][2] Magatama are thought to be an imitation of the teeth of large animals, pierced with a hole, which are found in earlier Jōmon remains.
[4] A "middle Jōmon exchange network" may have existed, whereby magatama were produced in regions where materials for their manufacture were readily plentiful.
Jade and talc examples produced in bead-making villages located in present-day Itoigawa, Niigata have been found at a large number of sites along the northern coast, in the central mountains, and in Kantō region.
[5]: 30 Examples of magatama from the Jōmon period have been discovered in large numbers at the Kamegaoka site in Tsugaru, Aomori Prefecture.
[6]: 173 Numerous magatama at the Ōishi site, Bungo-ōno, Ōita Prefecture, Kyushu show signs of being used for ceremonial, rather than decorative, purposes.
[2] From the Yayoi period onwards, magatama uniformly feature a bored hole that allowed the jewels to be held on a string.
[13] The Records of the Three Kingdoms, the earliest historical document with a reference to Japan, describes the Wa people, an ancient country of Yamatai, and its queen, Himiko.
The Record indicates that when Himiko died, her relative Iyo, a girl of 13, was made queen and sent a delegation of twenty officials under Yazuku, an imperial general, to offer tribute to the Northern Wei court.
Clay haniwa funerary objects of the Kofun period commonly depict people wearing the necklaces and ankle bracelets.
The excavation of the Ubusuna Kofun[21] in Kyōtango, Kyoto yielded two fully intact magatama necklaces of jade and agate, with segments between 1.7 and 5.1 centimetres (0.67 and 2.01 in) in length.
[21][20]: 268 The large Muro Miyayama Kofun of Katsuragi, Nara, on the Yamato Plain, 238 millimetres (9.4 in) in length, was plundered long before its excavation, but revealed 600 talc ceremonial magatama among other funerary objects, which also included 10 bronze Han Chinese mirrors.
[25] Susanoo went to heaven and presented them to his sister, the sun goddess Amaterasu, who bit off successive parts of the magatama, and blew them away to create other deities.
[25][26]: 40 In the year 58, in the reign of the Emperor Suinin, the Nihon Shoki records that a dog killed and disemboweled a mujina (badger), and a magatama was discovered in its stomach.
Chūai made an inspection trip to the Tsukushi, or Kyūshū, and was presented with an enormous sakaki tree hung with magatama as well as other sacred objects.
[citation needed] D. C. Holtom stated that noro priestesses (Okinawan: nūru) of the Ryukyu Kingdom wore magatama necklaces early in the 20th century for ceremonial purposes, but provides no other details.
In the Ace Attorney series, a magatama is frequently cited as the source of an ability that lets its wearer determine people's true intentions.
In Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir, the Kwagatama charms named after the magatama serve as a symbol of a bond between the kwami and their holder.
In Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, magatamas appear in the form of parasitic, insect-like creatures that grant their human hosts special, demonic powers.
In the Japanese card game “Yu-Gi-Oh!”, “Hu-Li the Jewel Mikanko” is based on the “Yasakani no Magatama” - one of the “Three Imperial Regalia of Japan”.
