Mayose

A is a high-level mystical spell of exorcism that, as the name suggests, is used to lure yōkai/demons of a specified type (i.e. swarms of low-level yōkai, such as the demonic shrine rats that are under the command of a Zushinezumi yōkai) in large numbers, and purify them. According to Miroku, a mayose is an extremely powerful spell that only be performed by a highly skilled and experienced priest or priestess with exceedingly strong and powerful spiritual power and knowledge, such as Kikyō, could produce.

Upon coming into effect, the Mayose, as its name implies, lures all low-level yōkai swarming the area to it. The only example of a Mayose seen in the franchise was used by Kikyō to stop increasingly-large swarms of rat demons released by Hakudōshi in an attempt to lure her out of hiding. The form of Mayose that she seems to favor is in the form of a tree, specifically an ōgatama (Michelia compressa), native to mountains to the west of the area. After sending one of her Shikigami, Kochō, to retrieve a fresh branch of an ōgatama, Kikyō drew a pentacle/pentagram into the ground of where she wants the Mayose to grow with her bow, sticks the ōgatama into the center of the pentacle/pentagram, and then uses her spiritual energy to cause the Mayose to grow into the form of a new, giant-sized ōgatama tree, that, either, reaches up towards the cloudline, and the branches are shrouded in a purifying mist. The rat demons mindlessly headed to the ōgatama tree Mayose, en masse, compelled to climbed up its trunk, up towards the branches obscured by clouds/mists, and were purified as they disappeared from sight. Hakudōshi then, however, killed-off Kikyō's Mayose tree by infesting it with giant demon slugs, which fed off of it until it withered, becoming too weak to keep working.