Kotodama .

Kotodama or kototama (言霊, lit. "word spirit/soul") refers to the Japanese belief that mystical powers dwell in words and names. English translations include "soul of language", "spirit of language", "power of language", "power word", "magic word", and "sacred sound". The notion of kotodama presupposes that sounds can magically affect objects, and that ritual word usages can influence our environment, body, mind, and soul.
This Japanese compound kotodama combines koto 言 "word; speech" and tama 霊 "spirit; soul" (or 魂 "soul; spirit; ghost") voiced as dama in rendaku. In contrast, the unvoiced kototama pronunciation especially refers to kototamagaku (言霊学, "study of kotodama"), which was popularized by Onisaburo Deguchi in the Oomoto religion.