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Onmyodo

Japan's Way of Yin and Yang: court divination and ritual from the Heian era, and the home of the shikigami legends.

An eight-pointed star: a sign of the heavens and of orientation, used in astrology, ornament and many protective designs.

Also: onmyoudou, yin-yang way, shikigami, abe no seimei

Onmyodo drew on Chinese yin-yang and five-phases thought and was run from the seventh century by the court's Bureau of Yin and Yang, Onmyoryo, which kept the calendar, read omens and set lucky and unlucky directions. Those directions shaped daily life: a courtier might spend the night elsewhere to avoid an unlucky direction. The best known master is Abe no Seimei (921 to 1005), around whom later tales gather, including his shikigami, spirit servants said to carry out tasks. The Meiji government abolished the official bureau in 1870, but its customs survive in calendars, shrine rites and directional lore, and modern fiction has made Seimei popular again.

See also

FuFeng shuiKami

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Every Monday: seven entries you may not know, what is on the calendar this week, and one rite drawn step by step.