Tsuchimikado clan

Tsuchimikado; 土御門家
Home province	Iga; Mutsu; Dewa
Parent house	Abe clan
Titles	Various

Tsuchimikado family is a family and subgroup of the Abe clan whwich practiced Onmyodo. They are responsible for running Tensha Tsuchimikado Shinto today.^[1]

ja:土御門家

Onmyoji[edit]

Onmyōji (Japanese: 陰陽師, literally: yin-and-yang master) was one of the official positions belonging to the Bureau of Onmyō of the Ministry of the Center under the ritsuryō system in ancient Japan, and was assigned as a technical officer in charge of divination and geomorphology based on the theory of the yin-and-yang five phases. In the middle ages and early modern period, the term was used to refer to those who performed prayers and divination in the private sector, and some of them were regarded as a kind of clergy.

History[edit]

Changes in the treatment of onmyōji under the ritsuryō system[edit]

In the middle of the Heian period (10th century), the monopolistic succession of two families, the Kamo family and the Abe family (see below), was seen, and the top positions in the Bureau of Onmyō, including a Head of Onmyō, were almost exclusively held by members of these two families. In addition, the onmyōdō practices of the two families became more religious than the original governmental positions, and these practices were heavily used by the Imperial Regents, Chief Imperial Advisors, and other officials of the Imperial court. As a result, the two families were promoted to more senior positions beyond the official rank of the Bureau of Onmyō in the ritsuryō system, even though they were in reality only practitioners of onmyōdō. In the Muromachi period, the Abe family in particular, under the patronage of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the third shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate, rose to become hanke as one of superior nobilities, which was always appointed as the senior government positions, and changed its name to the Tsuchimikado family. The Tsuchimikado family temporarily declined from the late Muromachi period to the Sengoku period, but in the early modern period, the Tokugawa shogunate gave the Tsuchimikado family the right to manage all onmyōji in Japan, and the Tsuchimikado family prospered until the beginning of the Meiji era.

Onmyōdō as a religion and the deification of onmyōji in the Heian period[edit]

Of the two families that inherited onmyōdō, during the Northern and Southern courts period, the Kamo family took the name of the Kadenokōji family after Kadenokōji,^{[note 1]} where their residence was located, and Kamo (Kadenokōji) Akikata was active in writing his own book "Rekirin Mondō Shū." However, in the middle of the Muromachi period, the successor to the head of the mainline Hōjo family was murdered, leading to the breakup of the family line and the gradual decline of the family's power. On the other hand, the Abe family was successful, and Abe no Ariyo (the 14th descendant of Abe no Seimei) took advantage of the patronage of the shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, to obtain a senior government position. The fact that onmyōji, who were feared and shunned in the court at the time because of their duties, became one of senior government positions was a groundbreaking event that caused a sensation. From the son of Abe no Ariyo, Abe no Arimori, to Abe no Arisue and Abe no Arinobu, successive generations were promoted to senior government positions, and the Abe family, originally a middle-class noble, rose to the status of hanke. In the generation of Abe no Arinobu (16th century), he seized the opportunity of the breakup of the Kadenokōji family to monopolize the duties related to both astrology and calendars for the next five generations. Since the residence of the head of the family had been located in Tsuchimikado after Abe no Ariyo, the Abe family changed its name to the Tsuchimikado family.^{[note 2]} The Tsuchimikado family had gained the support of both the Imperial court and Muromachi shogunate, and up to this point, it seemed to have perfected its power as an onmyōji.

However, the political power of the Ashikaga shogunate did not last long, and from the middle of the Muromachi period onward, all the shogun's deputies, with the exception of the Hosokawa clan, declined. The Ashikaga shogunate became more like a coalition government of powerful constables than a shogunate control, which led to factional struggles and frequent wars such as the Ōnin War. In addition, as the transition from constables to sengoku magnates and the tendency for deputy constables and samurais in each region to conquer each other spread, they became desperate to survive. Onmyōdō, which had been used formally as a complement, became less important. A succession of wars and the tyranny of the sengoku magnates led to the destruction of Heian-kyō, the seat of the Imperial court that had been the protector of the onmyōdō, and the shoguns of the Muromachi shogunate, which was located in the capital, often fled. In the first half of the 16th century, Tsuchimikado Arinobu evacuated his territory, which he had never visited in peacetime, to Notaoi, Natashō, Wakasa Province. Three generations of the Tsuchimikado family, Tsuchimikado Arinobu, his son Tsuchimikado Ariharu, and his grandson Tsuchimikado Arinaga, were appointed as the Head of Onmyō. However, they rarely served in Heian-kyō and remained in Wakasa Province to perform various rituals, including the festival of the Great Emperor of the Sacred Mountain of the East. As a result, the Imperial court was baffled and had no choice but to summon Kadenokōji Aritomi, a member of the Kadenokōji clan, to report on various matters. In this way, the operation of the Bureau of Onmyō became extremely unnatural. Later, as the Toyotomi clan established its power through the Oda clan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the Chief Imperial Advisor Emeritus [ja], ostracized his adopted son, Toyotomi Hidetsugu, and had him disemboweled. Tsuchimikado Hisanaga, son of Tsuchimikado Arinaga, was blamed for undertaking a prayer service for Toyotomi Hidetsugu and was exiled to Owari Province. Furthermore, Toyotomi Hideyoshi suppressed a large number of onmyōji. Therefore, the position of the Head of Onmyō and below became practically vacant, and onmyōji did not operate in the center of the Toyotomi administration. The onmyōdō that had existed since the Heian period completely lost its reality.

The revival of the official onmyōji and the rise of the private onmyōji in the early modern period[edit]

After the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and the defeat of the Western Army at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, the momentum of the Toyotomi family weakened. Tsuchimikado Hisanaga was then granted the right by Tokugawa Ieyasu to administer a total of 177 koku and 6 to [ja], covering the villages of Kaide, Otokuni County, Yamashiro Province (present-day Kaide, Mukō City, Kyoto Prefecture); Terado, Otokuni County (present-day Terado, Mukō City); Umekōji, Kadono County, Yamashiro Province (present-day Umekōji, Shimogyō Ward, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture); Saiin, Kadono County (present-day Saiin, Ukyō Ward, Kyoto City); and Kisshōin, Kii County, Yamashiro Province (present-day Kisshōin, Minami Ward, Kyoto City), and he returned to the Imperial court. When the Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1603, the Tsuchimikado family was officially recognized by the shogunate as the head of the onmyōdō sect, and was in charge of geomorphology in the construction and layout of facilities for the development of the Edo area. Later, onmyōdō was also used in the construction of Nikkō Tōshō-gū Shrine. The shogunate also began to control the activities of private onmyōji, which were flourishing in various parts of Japan at the time, with the aim of controlling folk religion to prevent the spread of rumors. The shogunate tried to use two onmyōji families from the Heian period (the Kamo and Abe family) to give authority to its measures. In addition to the Tsuchimikado family, which survived as a descendant of the Abe family, the shogunate planned to reestablish the Kōtokui family, which was a descendant of the Kamo family and a branch of the defunct Kadenokōji family, and to have the two families control the private onmyōji in various regions.

With this move, the Tsuchimikado family seized the opportunity of the death of Kōtokui Tomosuke in 1682 to effectively eliminate the Kōtokui family and once again monopolize the various positions in the Bureau of Onmyō. In addition to the patronage they received from the Imperial court, they also succeeded in getting the Tokugawa shogunate, the de facto government, to grant them the sole right to control onmyōji throughout Japan. They exercised their exclusive right to issue licenses to onmyōji (not as onmyōji, but as "students") from all over Japan, and became the official grand masters, making their presence felt. Furthermore, the onmyōdō took on the form of shinto in its appearance and came to be widely known as the Tensha Tsuchimikado Shinto, and the Tsuchimikado family reached its peak. In wartime samurai society, onmyōdō was largely neglected, but under the peaceful Tokugawa shogunate, it was incorporated into the rituals of the shogunate and became a subject of study by shogunate bureaucrats as a precedent for the past.

Onmyōji in various regions were also active, with the Ogasawara family of the Seiwa Genji clan, a samurai onmyōji, and others repeatedly fusing and changing their beliefs with the folklore of various regions, and throughout the Edo period it became quite popular among the people as a folk religion.

In 1684, Shibukawa Shunkai, an astronomer of the Tokugawa shogunate, completed the first calendar made by Japanese, the Jōkyō calendar. The Xuanming calendar, which had been in use for 823 years, was reformed by the Jōkyō calendar, and the Tsuchimikado family lost the authority to arrange the calendar to the Tokugawa shogunate. About 70 years later, in 1755, the calendar was reformed again when Tsuchimikado Yasukuni created the Hōryaku calendar. The Tsuchimikado family regained the authority to arrange and reform the calendar. However, the Hōryaku calendar had many flaws and was considered to be rather inferior to the scientifically created Jōkyō calendar.

Later, the Astronomical Department established under the Tokugawa shogunate's Temple and Shrine Magistrates regained control and created the Tenpō calendar, which was said to be considerably more accurate than the Tsuchimikado family's Hōryaku calendar or even the Jōkyō calendar, which was considered more accurate than the Hōryaku calendar.

The policy of eliminating onmyōji in modern times and modern onmyōji[edit]

After Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the last shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, returned his power to Emperor Meiji, in the Meiji era, taking advantage of the confusion of the Meiji Restoration, Tsuchimikado Haruo, the Head of Onmyō, requested that the Astronomical Department be confiscated by the Bureau of Onmyō and this was granted, expropriating all of the authority for astronomical observation and map surveying. Later, sensing that the government of Meiji Japan was planning to introduce the Western-style Gregorian calendar, Tsuchimikado Haruo insisted on the "Meiji Reformation" of the calendar to maintain the existing lunisolar calendar, but the proposal was never taken up due to his death.

On the contrary, when the leaders of the government of Meiji Japan received a proposal from Tsuchimikado Haruo to reform the calendar, those who were advocating the introduction of Western civilization opposed it, saying that the onmyōdō should be eliminated because there was a strong risk that the Bureau of Onmyō would become the center of opposition to the introduction of modern science to promote the introduction of advanced Western technology to develop the country and strengthen military power. In addition, "In direct rule by the Emperor, there can be no barbarism in which a vassal exercises real authority over the Emperor, nor any impertinence in which he directs the Emperor's actions. Moreover, it is inexcusable that onmyōdō, a technique of foreign (i.e., Chinese) origin, should be used in spite of the existence of Japan's Shinto." This argument resonated with both the pure Shintoists and the exclusionists, and the majority of them rejected onmyōdō. Furthermore, Tsuchimikado Harenaga, who became the Head of Onmyō after the death of his father Tsuchimikado Haruo, was still a very young boy and could not spontaneously refute the claims.

The government of Meiji Japan took advantage of this period to force the abolition of the Bureau of Onmyō in 1870, and transferred its duties of astronomical observation and calendar arrangement to the Astronomical and Calendar Bureau of the University (now the University of Tokyo), the Navy Hydrographic Bureau of the Ministry of War, the Astronomical Bureau of the Ministry of Education, and the Observatory. Tsuchimikado Harenaga, the former Head of Onmyō, was appointed as the official in charge of the Astronomical Bureau of the University, but he was relieved of this position at the end of 1870, and astrology, onmyōdō, and the calendars were completely removed from the hands of the Tsuchimikado family. On 9 December 1870, a decree was issued banning the Tensha Tsuchimikado Shinto and the spread of onmyōdō to the civilian population as it was a superstition.^{[note 3]} The Festival of the Deva and Naraka, an onmyōdō ritual that had always been performed from the time of Emperor Go-Yōzei (1571–1617) until the reign of Emperor Kōmei (1831–1867), the last Emperor of the Edo period, was not performed for Emperor Meiji (1852–1912). The Tokugawa shoguns, like the Emperors, have always performed the festival every time they were given the position of shogun by the Emperors. The Tsuchimikado family lost their official position in charge of onmyōdō, and also lost the exclusive right to issue the license, and although they had no choice but to further transform the Tensha Tsuchimikado Shinto into more shintoistically, they were deprived of their influence over private onmyōji in various regions.

Since the ban by the government of Meiji Japan, there has been no official event derived from onmyōdō, and there has been no popularity of onmyōdō in the private sector either. However, in reality, calendars derived from the onmyōdō still circulated unofficially, with Calendrical Notes gaining popularity and walking on their own. In particular, the Twelve Directions were heavily used, and there were many people who referred to them in rituals and codes of conduct.

After the Pacific War and the official repeal of the laws and ordinances prohibiting onmyōdō with the repeal of the old laws and ordinances of the Meiji era, the Six Days, one of the Carendrical Notes once used by onmyōji, were preferred to the Twelve Directions and often appear on many calendars, but this is only used as a supplement. As for calendars related to fortune, the Takashima calendar (unrelated to the Jingū calendar of Ise Grand Shrine) of Takashima's I Ching Divination (no relation to Kaemon Takashima, a businessman and I Ching diviner of the Meiji era) by Jingūkan (a publisher in Taitō City, Tokyo Metropolis) is relatively popular, but this is hardly onmyōdō.

Today, there are few people who rely on the arts of onmyōdō for general guidelines for behavior, and there is no trace of the authority of onmyōji that once flourished. The Association of Tensha Tsuchimikado Shinto still exists in Ōi Town in the western part of Fukui Prefecture, in the area of Natashō in Wakasa Province, which used to be the territory of the Tsuchimikado family, as a religious organization that retains elements of onmyōdō, but it is far removed from the onmyōdō of the middle to late Heian period. Other than that, there are only a few vestiges of onmyōdō surviving in local onmyōji such as the Izanagi school in Kami City (formerly Monobe Village), Kōchi Prefecture. Based on the occult image of the spell-binding onmyōji of the Heian period, various creative works and characters were created to exaggerate their superhumanity and peculiarity. In particular, from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, onmyōji became popular, and many works were created.

Notable figures[edit]

Footnotes[edit]

Notes[edit]

↑ It is different from the Hino family of the Hokke of the Fujiwara clan and the Kadenokōji family of the Shiba clan of the Seiwa Genji clan.
↑ Like the Kamo family, which took the name "Kadenokōji" from the name of a place, it is different from the Tsuchimikado family of the Minamoto no Michichika lineage, which follows the Murakami Genji clan.
↑ Therefore, at this point, both the Tsuchimikado family and the Kurahashi family, a branch of the Tsuchimikado family, had left the onmyōdō and onmyōji was no longer an official position. On 21 May 1946, the Tensha Tsuchimikado Shinto was revived, but Yoshiko Tsuchimikado (born 1959) (a daughter of the last male head of the family, Noritada Tsuchimikado (1920–1994)), the current female head of the Tsuchimikado family has taken a stance of not being involved in any way. Therefore, since the Meiji era, there has been no such title as "onmyōji" or "Onmyōdō Sōke" in modern times, and aside from its existence in the private sector, there is no such thing as an onmyōji as an official position.

References[edit]

↑ https://archive.ph/uJNu5