The character performs Voodoo rituals - specifically Japanese style voodoo known as Ushinokokumairi.

The Ushinokokumairi ritual seem to origin around the year 800 at the Kibune Shrine in Kyoto, where a young beautiful woman cursed her husband in a 7 day long ritual for cheating on her.

This ritual still practiced today involves hammering 15 cm nails into straw dolls to put curses on chosen victims.

Sometimes these curses are for good health and luck as well as the opposite.