津轻巫婆

Yasuhiro Omori is one of Japan's leading ethnographic filmmakers. Trained as an anthropologist and filmmaker under Jean Rouch, Omori has been documenting cultures around the world on three continents of Asia, Europe and Africa for over twenty years. His films have received numerous international prizes and been televised in France and Japan. His works are produced and housed at the National Museum of Ethnology, Japan. "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." Film Festivals, Screenings, Awards: First Prize, Margaret Mead Film Festival, American Museum of Natural History, 1994 First Prize, Bilan du Film Ethnographic, Paris, 1995 Third Prize, Nuoro Festival, Nuoro, Italy, 1996