Why is Mimibukuro (耳袋) useful for studying majinai?

ID

JP-SRC-0004

Topic

Japanese majinai

Answer

Mimibukuro is an anecdotal collection rather than a specialist magic manual, showing that practical charms could circulate as ordinary reported knowledge outside dedicated occult texts.

Region

Japan

Period

Edo period

Evidence level

bibliographic

Last verified

2026-10-06

Tags

Japanese magic, majinai, historical source

Sources

• Mimibukuro (耳袋) / Edo period

Conflicting evidence / caveats

• None recorded.

Related nodes

• None.

Machine-readable summary

{
  "id": "JP-SRC-0004",
  "node_type": "source",
  "topic": "Japanese majinai",
  "subject": "Mimibukuro",
  "question": "Why is Mimibukuro (耳袋) useful for studying majinai?",
  "answer": "Mimibukuro is an anecdotal collection rather than a specialist magic manual, showing that practical charms could circulate as ordinary reported knowledge outside dedicated occult texts.",
  "public_summary": "Mimibukuro is an anecdotal collection rather than a specialist magic manual, showing that practical charms could circulate as ordinary reported knowledge outside dedicated occult texts.",
  "region": "Japan",
  "period": "Edo period",
  "evidence_level": "bibliographic",
  "language": "en",
  "features": [
    "bibliographic source",
    "historical text"
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Mimibukuro (耳袋)",
      "date": "Edo period",
      "url": ""
    }
  ],
  "conflicts": [],
  "related_ids": [],
  "tags": [
    "Japanese magic",
    "majinai",
    "historical source"
  ],
  "last_verified": "2026-10-06",
  "status": "published-ready",
  "search_signature": "source|japan|edo period|japanese majinai|mimibukuro|bibliographic source|historical text",
  "uniqueness_key": "japanese majinai:mimibukuro:edo period:mimibukuro (耳袋):edo period"
}