<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; ">Noble Cousin!<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Greetings from Solveig!</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"><DIV><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>Here's the actual question: why is it that miko did not become denegrated to the point of being accused of being witches, while women in Europe had this happen to them? The easy answer is, of course, that the miko were not deemed a threat to the Japanese equivalents to Church and State. But I want to give a bit of background in with such a short, almost glib answer.</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV>The first answer of course is that they had a status more similar to nuns than to weird women.</DIV><DIV>Further, Japan has a long-term tendency to religious syncretism.</DIV><DIV>This does not mean that women were immune to suspicion.</DIV><DIV>Supposably, there were "fox trials" which were in some ways similar to "witch trails"</DIV><DIV>Certainly, Konjaku Monogatari contains tales of foxes seducing men.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV>Your Humble Servant</DIV><DIV>Solveig Throndardottir</DIV><DIV>Amateur Scholar</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN> </DIV><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>