I recently bought a magatama, that I wear allways now. It got me thinking about why they unlock the secrets of the heart, I know that in ancient Japan they where originally just decorations, accessories, so why in AA do they detect lies locked away in peoples hearts. Eventually they gained some religious significance, wiki of course doesn't mention what.

Info from Wikipedia:
In the first chapter of the Nihon shoki Amaterasu the sun goddess was given 500 magatamas from her brother Susanoo the god of the sea and storms. It also later talks about a dog killing a badger thing and it having a magatama in it's stomach in the year 58 AD. Nothing about unlocking hearts.

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Well, I did a little research but here are the only theories I have (I have no idea if they are correct):

Magatamas are supposed to be shaped like the soul, so maybe unlocking secrets of the soul.

The creators just wanted a symbol that had sacred meaning- it could have been a second thought to the fact they wanted Phoenix to be able to see Psyche locks

I heard that It was used in several other animes and video games, it could be they wanted to just slip it in themselves

In Japanese Myth, Amaterasu has to hides in her cave, where the Magatama is hanging. This is kinda far off, but what if the it was something about hiding secrets, and hiding Amaterasu?

Finally:
Maybe it is something her about proving his sincerity?
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaterasu)
The texts also tell of a long-standing rivalry between Amaterasu and her other brother, Susanoo. When he was to leave Heaven by orders of Izanagi, he went to bid his sister goodbye. Amaterasu was suspicious, but when Susanoo proposed a challenge to prove his sincerity, she accepted. Each of them took an object of the other's and from it birthed gods and goddesses. Amaterasu birthed three women from Susano's sword while he birthed five men from her necklace. Claiming the gods were hers because they were born of her necklace, and the goddesses were his, she decided that she had won the challenge, as his item produced women. The two were content for a time, but her brother became restless and went on a rampage, destroying Amaterasu's rice fields, hurling a flayed pony at her loom, and killing one of her attendants in a fit of rage. Amaterasu, who was in fury and grief, hid inside the Ama-no-Iwato ("heavenly rock cave"), thus effectively hiding the sun for a long period of time. Though she was persuaded to leave the cave, Susanoo was punished by being banished from Heaven. Both later amended their conflict when Susanoo gave her the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi sword as a reconciliation gift.

Ooh! I found a much more helpful website that sounds more relative to the case at hand.
It at least explains why all the spirit mediums have one.
(http://japanesereligions.blogspot.com/2 ... beads.html)
The beads were also used in spirit pacification rituals to “call back the spirit of the deceased and then to bind it and/or transfer it” (Ebersole 96). This was possible because the magatama beads are believed to be a lure to the kami as well as a temporary residing place for them (Blacker 106).
Also, remember back to where Feenie got the Magatama. From Maya.
On this website it says it was a way of passing power and good forunte to one another.

Hoped this help!

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Don't forget that the magatama was introduced in the second game, whereas Mia and Maya both had magatamas in their designs in the first game. I'm sure they were initially included in Mia and Maya as signs of Japanese spiritualism. Then in JFA, they probably already wanted the psyche-lock power, and chose the object to use as a magatama arbitrarily, because it is just a general symbol of Japanese spirituality, and because it was already connected to the Feys through Mia and Maya's designs.

In short, I don't think there's some deep, real-life connection between magatamas and the psyche-lock powers in the game.

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The Magatamas, in the AA-verse, do not detect lies in a person's heart. Only a secret.

C-A

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Yeah but depending on how you word the question it can be used 'like' a lie detector.

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I didn't really know anything about magatamas before Ace Attorney, and even now I still kind of relate them to AA. However, I really like them, and wear one as a necklace. It's green, just like Maya's.

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