In ancient times, it was believed that words had a power of their own and could influence things by being uttered.
A simple word of congratulation would be powerful enough to bring good things into being, while a curse would bring disaster to the subject through the mystical power of language. That is kotodama.
In the Kojiki, there is a story that Izanagi-no-Mikoto visited Yomi-no-Kuni to see the deceased Izanami-no-Mikoto, but he broke a prohibition by looking back at his wife, who had changed into an unsightly maggot-ridden figure, thus having to flee back to the surface.
At that time, Izanami-no-Mikoto spoke to her husband Izanagi-no-Mikoto, "I shall kill one thousand of your country's people a day." Izanagi-no-Mikoto replied to those words with "If so, then I shall make it so 1500 people are granted life a day." It is said that, due to these words, it came to be that one thousand people died and 1500 were born every day.
Simply put, the words uttered by Izanagi-no-Mikoto and Izanami-no-Mikoto had kotodama, and due to that kotodama, people died and lived.
This belief in kotodama was inherited by later religious rites and sorceries. One could say traces of the kotodama belief are the chanted ritual prayers of religious rites, like the Shinto 'norito', and the incantations of magic.
However, even outside of special chants, kotodama can be easily invoked.
For example, words such as 'separate' and 'break' shouldn't be said at weddings, and the idea that gifted amounts should avoid even numbers because they're 'divisible' are probably remnants of kotodama.
But that's not all.
If you were to say to someone, "I'll hold a grudge against you," the words would remain in their mind as something that would not go away, and that alone could cause vague anxiety and fear.
This could be called a kind of spell.
As the above shows, words literally hold souls.
It often happens that words uttered casually have an unexpected impact on others.
We need to be very careful when we speak.
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