Mudras, Mantras, Foxes, and Falls: The Japanese Religious Background of Anime and Manga
By Nathan Jishin Michon
A young hero ventures deep into the mountains after being humbled in battle, desperately searching for their teacher – and for hopes of unlocking hidden skills that might aid in defeating their opponents. Once the acolyte proves themselves ready for the next stage, passing initial tests set by the teacher, the intensity amps. They chant special phrases, fix their fingers in particular positions, and stand for hours under the stream of an ice-cold waterfall. Cue training music, montages, and high-octane energy that keeps viewers at the edge of their seats.
Such scenes are ubiquitous among modern manga and anime. Battles, too, are filled with resonating chants and hand gestures, while narratives and storyworlds infuse numerous other ascetic practices, mythological figures, sacred objects, and names with origins and inspirations in Japan’s thousand-plus-year-old religious traditions.
Yet, what many viewers may not realize is just how deeply rooted these dramatic moments are in real-world practices—especially in Japan’s esoteric spiritual traditions. These storylines don’t just borrow aesthetic elements; they echo actual rituals, disciplines, and belief systems that have shaped Japanese culture for centuries.
From the use of mudras and mantras to mystical Shinto creatures, what we often see as fantasy is, in many cases, a stylized reflection of long-standing religious practices. These spiritual landscapes continue to inspire Japan’s most iconic storytelling, setting the scene for all of our most beloved shows.
Mudras, Mantras, and Media
Though going by many names –ninjutsu, magic, sorcery–, anime, especially long-running classics like Naruto and Bleach, often features intricate hand gestures that act as the catalyst for creating special spells. Almost exclusively, these hand gestures come paired with spoken words. Only on the rarest of occasions, a skilled figure can complete the formula without the incantation; other characters pause, stricken with awe: “How can he pull that off without hand signs?”
While often seen in fiction, these hand shapes and finger patterns—called mudras—actually predate both modern media and even ancient Japan. Borrowed from older Indian traditions, they became part of Mikkyo Buddhism, or “secret teachings,” and in Japan, these gestures are typically performed alongside sacred chants known as mantras. The main tradition of Mikkyo in Japan, Shingon, literally means “mantra,” reflecting its identity as the “mantra school” of Japanese Buddhism.
When the famed monk Kukai returned from China after two years of study, he revolutionized Japanese spirituality. Central to his teachings were two mandalas that represent complementary aspects of existence. Though visually stunning, these mandalas serve as complex tools for meditation. At the center of both is Dainichi, the cosmic Buddha symbolizing perfect awakening and the pure light of the universe. Surrounding him are figures embodying different facets of enlightenment—wisdom, compassion, and even fierce guardians who help dispel negative traits like greed and craving. Practitioners meditate by visualizing themselves as one of these figures, gradually internalizing its qualities.
In The Meanings of Sound, Letter, and Reality, Kukai writes:
The moment that the inner breath and the outer air begin to move, vibration inevitably arises. This is called sound. Vibration always relies on sound; thus sound is the source of vibration. Sound arises and is never meaningless; it is always the name of a thing. This is called letter. Names and words always evoke the essence. This is called reality. Distinguishing the three—sound, letter, reality—this is called meaning.
He believed these letters embodied the universe’s essence, ultimately helping to inspire the meditative practice of calligraphy. Mandalas often reflect this energy through geometric patterns—especially sets of five—guiding practitioners deeper into spiritual contemplation.
The patterns of letters and “vibrations” are organized along geometric lines to represent different areas of focus and paths to deepen meditation, with a recurring emphasis on the number five—often a central figure or circle surrounded by four others. Even when more figures appear, the structure typically centers around five “buddhas,” with additional figures integrated around them.
In Shingon teachings, five buddhas represent five key universal elements: earth, water, fire, air, and space. Each is also tied to five wisdoms, five colors, and five primary sounds and letters—combinations of five that appear across temples and sacred spaces in Japan. Once you know what to look for, you’ll spot five-colored flags, five Sanskrit syllables carved into pillars or graves, and five-colored ropes draping temple altars.
These elements and powers all emanate from Dainichi, the source at the center of the mandala, yet they are also distinct. In visualization practices, Dainichi becomes five, and five become one—a cycle of unity and separation that should feel familiar. This concept eventually seeped into broader Japanese culture and even pop culture: schools of Ikebana, garden designs, and the five-member teams of robots, rangers, and magical girl squads all echo this sacred structure.
Another fascinating aspect is how these elements correspond to the fingers—from pinky to thumb: earth, water, fire, wind, and space. Combining fingers creates flows of elemental energy and Sanskrit syllables, each matched to figures in the mandala. Many iconic hand signs seen in manga and anime trace back to these ritual mudras, where ancient spirituality meets modern storytelling.
Mudras were just one part of mastering the elements and aspects of the mandala. The system centered on a three-fold practice of purifying body, speech, and mind simultaneously. Mudras represented physical energy and purification, paired with visualizations to purify the mind and mantras to purify speech. Full esoteric Buddhist meditation required combining all three: hand gesture, mantra, and visualization.
While it’s difficult to observe thoughts and visualizations, visitors to temples in Japan for over 1,000 years could see hand movements paired with chanting. Over time, real ninja also incorporated Esoteric Buddhist mudra and mantra combinations into their training. As Japan modernized, the importance of these pairings spread through new religious movements that adapted the practices for broader audiences.
Elements of these traditions—hand gestures, mantras, and underlying theories—have influenced modern imagination, appearing in manga and anime. While Buddhist monks didn’t summon giant toads or blow fireballs from their mouths, the spirit of intense training and focus portrayed in these stories draws deeply from real, historical practices.
Foxes, Falls, and Fushimi Inari
The infusion of religious elements in modern Japanese media goes beyond mantras, mudras, and Buddhist practices; other spiritual traditions and rituals also have prominent places on the pages of a manga or depicted on screen. Demon Slayer and One Piece are among numerous anime to feature characters with round strings of drums floating up behind them, based on the Shinto thunder kami, Raijin (and even go as far as to co-opt the exact name itself). Wise, powerful mountain kami known as tengu, long depicted with either bird beaks or extended noses and have many garnered many shrines throughout the Japanese mountains, with statues and masks donned during sacred dances representing these tengu. Dozens of shows, from The Eccentric Family, Kakuriyo, and Digimon, have featured the enigmatic future of the tengu. Even beyond tengu, manga and anime are rife with representations of old traditional kami, their shrines, and the symbols surrounding them.
Take, for example, one of Japan’s most iconic Shinto shrines, Fushimi Inari Taisha, whose striking red-orange torii gates continue to captivate travelers—over 10,000 of these gates line Kyoto’s sacred eastern mountain, their number growing each year. Lines of those colored gates themselves are depicted across the spectrum of manga and anime. Whether Inuyasha or Your Name, passing through these gateways to the sacred can often have a mystical quality in such stories, just as the sacred passages they have long represented.
Venturing beyond the gateways, you’ll spot familiar symbols hidden among the shrines: dragons pouring water into fountains, sacred spaces marked by ropes and zigzagging paper called shide. These papers are often thought to represent lightning—a force tied to rain, harvests, and divine power–and can be found trees, rocks, torii gates, and even wrapped around leading sumo wrestlers’ waists–or around the waists of powerful anime figures.
Guarding many shrine buildings are fox statues—especially prominent at Fushimi Inari and thousands of Inari shrines nationwide. Foxes also appear frequently in Japanese pop culture, often in mystical or hybrid forms: multi-tailed beasts, humanoid foxes with ears and tails, and more. From Naruto and Inuyasha to Natsume's Book of Friends and Kakuriyo, the magical fox continues to enchant.
Many of Japan’s fox-related beliefs, myths, and legends stem from two main sources. One is the Shinto tradition, where foxes serve as messengers for the rice deity Inari. These messengers, known as byakko ("white fox"), symbolized invisibility rather than color. Old paintings often depict them as giant white foxes carrying Inari, typically with a single tail. As fox spirits age and gain power, they are said to grow additional tails, up to nine. Inari shrines are among the most common in Japan, with over 10,000 official sites and countless smaller ones across the country, all featuring fox statues.
Fox lore also blends with another tradition: yokai—supernatural creatures similar to goblins, fairies, or ghosts in Western folklore. In this context, foxes are called kitsune, the everyday Japanese word for fox, and are central figures in countless myths and legends across Japan.
These kitsune are known as shape-shifters. Though naturally fox spirits, they can appear human, blending in and speaking as if they were ordinary people. However, maintaining that human form requires concentration—if they laugh too hard or get drunk, a tail or fox ears might suddenly appear. Kitsune are also famously mischievous. A common story tells of foxes disguised as people, giving someone candy or money, only for it to turn into fox poop once the fox runs off and hides, laughing at their prank. Such tales were so widespread that they became common references in traditional Japanese theater, instantly recognized by audiences. And as time passed and platforms of popular entertainment shifted, the same parts of the humanoid foxes remained–the peaked ears and tail of characters in anime, equally mischievous or possessing shape-shifting abilities.
Fushimi Inari Shrine also hides numerous special spots few visitors see: over a dozen takigyo (waterfall meditation) sites. While many know of Buddhism and Shinto, fewer are aware of Shugendo, Japan’s “mountain spirituality,” which includes traditional ascetic practices. The practitioners of Shugendo, yamabushi, often wear all white clothing or white and yellow uniforms with sanskrit letters etched across the backs, and don specialized small black caps on the forehead called tokin, specialized sashes with occasional fabric balls attached. On screen, they appear clothed in rugged clothing, but other depictions can be more literal: in the show Token Ranbu: Hanamaru, a character by the name of Yamabushi Kunihiro appears.
Yamabushi can be commonly seen engaging in takigyo: calmly chanting mantras and holding mudras under freezing mountain water. Though Fushimi Inari uses small streams, other areas have practitioners standing under massive waterfalls, even in winter, chanting sutras as water pours over them. Anime like Demon Slayer often exaggerate the waterfalls’ size, but the practice itself is real—and just as freezing as depicted on screen.
By tracing the roots of anime’s mystical hand signs, elemental systems, spiritual beasts, and waterfall training sequences, we uncover more than just captivating tropes—we reveal a living connection to Japan’s esoteric and folkloric past that goes beyond simple narrative devices or visual flair. Instead, they are echoes of actual beliefs and practices, reshaped and reimagined for modern storytelling. Whether it’s a monk under a waterfall, a fox spirit hidden in plain sight, or a hero unlocking inner power through mudras and mantras, these scenes bridge centuries of tradition and imagination. Behind the shows and stories we love is a heritage that continues to endure.
About the Author: Nathan Jishin Michon is ordained as an "Ajari" in the Shingon Buddhist tradition and previously trained in Zen. "Jishin" received a PhD in cultures and histories of religion with a focus on Buddhist studies and Japanese religions, giving him complimentary insider and outsider academic perspectives. He teaches courses on Japanese religions at Ryukoku University in Japan and online for US universities, while also leading retreats and meditations at temples in Kyoto. His writings and research focused on meditation and healthcare, and how modern Japanese Buddhist are combining western Christian chaplaincy and modern psychology with traditional meditation and healing modalities to create new forms of post-disaster and hospice care. Jishin's writings and talks have been featured at Columbia University, Harvard university, and Amsterdam University, among others.
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