Onmyōdō: Japan's Way of Yin and Yang and Abe no Seimei

Onmyōdō (陰陽道, "the way of yin and yang") is the Japanese system of divination, astronomy, calendar-making and protective ritual based on Chinese yin-yang and five-phase cosmology, practised from the seventh century by court specialists called onmyōji in the government's Bureau of Yin and Yang. Its most famous master, Abe no Seimei (921–1005), became a legendary figure of Japanese folklore, and its directional taboos, lucky and unlucky days and exorcisms shaped life at the Heian court and in later popular religion until the bureau was abolished in 1870.

What Is Onmyōdō? Yin-Yang in Japan§

Onmyōdō is the Japanese reading of the Chinese yinyang dao, but in Japan it became a distinctive tradition. Its foundations are the Chinese theories of yin and yang and the five phases, the cycles of heavenly stems and earthly branches, astronomy and astrology, and methods of divination related to those of the I Ching and Chinese astrology. In Japan these were combined with indigenous kami worship, purification rites, Taoist-derived spells and talismans, and esoteric Buddhist ritual.

The Nihon shoki records that in 602 a monk from the Korean kingdom of Paekche named Kwallŭk (Japanese Kanroku) presented the court with books on the calendar, astronomy and geography, and on the arts of "invisibility" and divination, and that students were assigned to learn them. Emperor Tenmu (r. 673–686), himself said to be skilled in astronomy and divination, established an observatory and is associated with the creation of the Bureau of Yin and Yang.

The Bureau of Yin and Yang and the Court of Heian§

Under the legal codes of the early eighth century, the Onmyōryō was a department of the central government with four divisions: yin-yang (divination and geomancy), the calendar, astronomy, and the water clock. Its officials divined the meaning of omens, chose auspicious sites and dates for state undertakings, prepared the annual calendar, observed the heavens and reported unusual phenomena such as eclipses and comets to the emperor in secret, and kept the official time.

The choice of the site of Heian-kyō (Kyoto) as the capital in 794 is often linked to the Chinese ideal of a site protected by the "four guardian" deities of the directions, the same ideal found in feng shui, and its north-east, the "demon gate" (kimon) through which evil was thought to enter, was guarded by the Tendai monastery of Mount Hiei. During the Heian period (794–1185) onmyōji became indispensable to aristocrats as well as the court, and from the tenth century the profession was dominated by two families, the Kamo and the Abe.

Divination, Astronomy and the Calendar§

The onmyōji's basic technique was shikisen, divination with a cosmic board (shikiban), a square earth-plate with a rotating round heaven-plate inscribed with stars, directions and cyclical signs, used to calculate answers to questions about the causes of illness, the meaning of portents or the outcome of undertakings. Calendar-makers produced the annotated calendar (guchūreki), which marked for each day its cyclical sign, auspicious and inauspicious activities, and the positions of directional deities. Courtiers such as Fujiwara no Michinaga wrote their diaries in the blank spaces of such calendars.

Astronomers interpreted celestial events as messages from Heaven about the state of government. Buddhist astrologers of the Sukuyōdō tradition, based on Indian and Chinese esoteric astrology, competed and overlapped with them; see esoteric Buddhism in Japan. These were among the most "scientific" activities of the age and were not distinguished from religion.

Directional Taboos, Days of Abstinence and Protective Rites§

Much of Heian life was governed by Onmyōdō prohibitions. Wandering directional deities, such as Nakagami or Ten'ichijin, were believed to move around the compass according to a fixed cycle; travelling toward the direction where one was located brought misfortune. The solution was katatagae, "changing direction": a courtier would first go somewhere else, spend the night, and then continue to his destination from a different angle. Literature of the period, including The Tale of Genji and court diaries, frequently mentions such detours.

On days of monoimi ("abstinence"), determined by divination after bad dreams or omens, people stayed indoors behind closed gates, hung a tag reading monoimi, and refused visitors. Onmyōji also performed rites of protection and purification: offerings to the Lord of Mount Tai, ruler of life spans, for longevity; purifications in which illness or impurity was transferred to paper human figures (hitogata) and cast into rivers, a practice that influenced Shinto purification; rites to quell earth spirits before building; and the year-end exorcism of demons (tsuina), an ancestor of today's Setsubun bean-throwing described in Shinto festivals. They used a ritual step-dance called henbai, derived from the Chinese Taoist "Pace of Yu".

Abe no Seimei: History and Legend§

Abe no Seimei (921–1005) was a historical onmyōji who studied under Kamo no Tadayuki and his son Yasunori and served emperors and the regent Fujiwara no Michinaga, performing divinations and rites recorded in contemporary diaries. His descendants headed the Bureau of Yin and Yang for centuries.

Legend transformed him. The historical tale Ōkagami tells that Seimei read in the heavens the abdication of Emperor Kazan in 986 as it happened. The twelfth-century collection Konjaku monogatari relates that he could kill a frog with a leaf by magic, and commanded invisible spirit servants called shikigami; later tradition said he kept them hidden under the Ichijō Modori Bridge in Kyoto. Further stories made his mother a fox spirit named Kuzunoha, pitted him against a rival sorcerer, Ashiya Dōman, and gave him a five-pointed star emblem, the "Seimei bellflower" (Seimei kikyō), still displayed at the Seimei Shrine in Kyoto, which stands on the traditional site of his residence. The pentagram's use as a protective sign in Japan has parallels with its use elsewhere, discussed in religious symbols.

Onmyōdō After the Heian Period§

As the power of the court declined, Onmyōdō spread beyond it. Warrior governments in Kamakura and later employed onmyōji, and from the medieval period many unofficial practitioners, often itinerant and of low status, offered divination, purification, prayers, calendars and almanacs to ordinary people, sometimes alongside the mountain ascetics of Shugendō. In 1683 the Tokugawa shogunate confirmed the authority of the Tsuchimikado family, the descendants of Seimei, to license onmyōji throughout the country.

Popular Onmyōdō left lasting marks on Japanese culture: belief in unlucky years, lucky and unlucky days, the demon gate, directional taboos for moving house, and many charms and rituals now practised at shrines and temples.

Abolition, Survival and Modern Revival§

The Meiji government, committed to modern science and to a reformed Shinto, abolished the Bureau of Yin and Yang in 1870, adopted the Gregorian calendar at the end of 1872, and ended the Tsuchimikado family's licensing privileges. Onmyōdō was officially classed as superstition. It survived in folk forms, most famously in Izanagi-ryū, a tradition of village priests (tayū) in the former Monobe village in Kōchi Prefecture, Shikoku, who perform rites of purification, prayer and spirit pacification that preserve onmyōdō elements.

Traces also remain in Japanese almanacs, which still mark the six-day rokuyō cycle of lucky and unlucky days used to choose wedding and funeral dates, though that cycle itself became popular only in the nineteenth century. Since the late 1980s, novels, manga and films about Abe no Seimei have created a popular "onmyōji boom", turning the Heian diviner into a figure of fantasy. Historians such as Bernard Faure have meanwhile drawn attention to Onmyōdō's real importance in the medieval Japanese pantheon and ritual world, alongside the strange beings of yōkai folklore.

Frequently asked questions§

What is an onmyōji?§

An onmyōji was a "yin-yang master", a specialist in divination, astronomy, the calendar and protective ritual, originally employed by the Japanese government's Bureau of Yin and Yang. Later the name was also used by unofficial diviners and ritualists.

Was Abe no Seimei a real person?§

Yes. Abe no Seimei (921–1005) was a historical court onmyōji whose activities are recorded in contemporary diaries. Most of the famous stories about his magic, his fox mother and his rival Ashiya Dōman are later legends.

What is katatagae?§

Katatagae means "changing direction". When divination showed that a journey's direction was blocked by a wandering deity, a Heian aristocrat would travel first to another place and continue from there, avoiding the inauspicious direction.

Sources and further reading§

• The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan — Carmen Blacker, 1975
• The Fluid Pantheon: Gods of Medieval Japan — Bernard Faure, 2016
• Ōkagami, The Great Mirror: Fujiwara Michinaga (966–1027) and His Times — Helen Craig McCullough, 1980
• Japanese Tales — Royall Tyler, 1987
• The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan — Ivan Morris, 1964
• Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697 — W. G. Aston, 1896