Cyber Execration: a case study of Ushi no Koku Mairi and its Re-Enchantment through online cursing

Abstract

The practice of Ushi no Koku Mairi, a Japanese form of casting curses, has sustained changes from a pre-modern tradition to an online form of execration. Though once a practice imbued with magical qualities, rigid rationalization has undermined such qualities, resulting in disenchantment. The current form of cyber execration, however, and its seemingly limitless virtual features have served to re-instate cursing’s enchanting potential. This article provides a case study of Ushi no Koku Mairi as a phenomenon that is at once rationalized through systematic precepts of digital technology, and re-enchanted through the spectacle of simulation, implosion and the manipulation of time and space.

Keywords

• cursing
• execration
• Japan
• rationality
• re-enchantment