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Yūsoku Kojitsu

From EverybodyWiki Bios & Wiki


precedent for the past is a topic related to Onmyodo ja:有職故実

Onmyoji[edit]

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 1] 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.

Overview of rituals in onmyōdō[edit]

As onmyōdō itself has diversified over time, its rituals have also not been uniform. Since the rituals of onmyōdō, including its influence with other religions, are still in the process of research, it is difficult to describe them in detail. When onmyōdō was first introduced to Japan, it is thought that it was strongly influenced by the so-called jugondō [ja]. In the "Onmyōryōshiki (Japanese: 陰陽寮式, literally: Procedures of the Bureau of Onmyō)" of the book "Engishiki," there is a record of the festivals held by onmyōji in the court. According to it, there are the nuo folk religion (setsubun), bonfire, kitchen God festival, death anniversary festival of the previous Emperor, new year's festival, and so on. Among them, in the nuo folk religion, it says that an onmyōji goes (to a stage) and reads the ritual text, the first half of which is a Classical Chinese text read aloud, and the second half is a declaration like liturgical incantations. In addition, the medieval book "Bunkanshō" gives an overview of several rituals. The rituals of onmyōdō consisted of large, medium, and small rituals, and it seems that they were used in different ways depending on the situation.

Among the representative rituals of onmyōdō are the Festival of the Great Emperor of the Sacred Mountain of the East, which is held to honor Dongyue Dadi, the ruler of human life, and the Festival of the Deva and Naraka, which was held every time an Emperor ascended to the throne. The "Bunkanshō" also mentions that there were various other onmyōdō rituals. The texts of some of these rituals are still extant.

In media[edit]

Books[edit]

Manga and anime[edit]

Films[edit]

Video games[edit]

See also[edit]

Footnotes[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ↑ 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]

  1. ↑ "Naraka: Bladepoint - New Hero Out Now!".

Further reading[edit]


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