Skip Beat, Vol. 3, Act 16
言霊
天使の言霊 (Tenshi no Kotodama) is the original title of this chapter. Tenshi = angels. Kotodama (literally, “word spirit”) is the spiritual power that’s believed to dwell in words here in Japan. It’s also written 言魂 (”word soul”).
The words you speak is believed to affect reality. So if you utter good words, good things will happen. If you utter unlucky words, bad things will happen. So when Shinto prayers are read, whoever reads them takes the care of not making any mistakes. Even in current times, there are words that are forbidden to be used at weddings and at funerals. Words that are forbidden at weddings are words such as “to cut” and “to end”. Instead of using these forbidden words, you use different expressions that mean the same thing.