: 79 It is assumed that traditional clothing, which made it more difficult to distinguish men from women like in other cultures, might have had an influence on this development. The term half-moon ( 半月, hangetsu) was coined to describe such beings. Likewise the belief spread that some people could change their gender depending on the lunar phase. Leupp adds that the origins might even reach back to the origins of Buddhism, since the deities would not necessarily have a fixed or determinable gender.
Traditional vocal pieces that date back hundreds of years deliver rough evidence that a change of gender was not ruled out : 78–79 and that the representation of the gender was used to worship deities such as dōsojin which sometimes had ambiguous gender, being neither male nor female. Japanese folk religion created diverse fantasies related to sexual characteristics. Stones (with shimenawa) representing dōsojin found near Karuizawa, Nagano
