The Development of Early Modern Onmyodo

Abstract

This article examines the development of Onmyodo in the early modern period of Edo Japan. Although much of the focus on Onmyodo has been on the ancient and medieval periods, early modern Onmyodo had a completely different historical meaning due to various social developments in the Edo period. First, the Tsuchimikado family gained official recognition from the shogunate so that all divination activity required licensing from them. Second, calendar creation and astronomical observations, formerly the responsibility of the Imperial Court's Onmyodo Bureau, shifted to a new "office of astronomy" created by the bakufu. This system, in which religious practitioners such as those affiliated with Onmyodo were incorporated into the bakufu's ruling framework, was dominant during the Edo period but was systematically dismantled by the Meiji government in the late nineteenth century. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Headnote

This article examines the development of Onmyodo in the early modern period of Edo Japan. Although much of the focus on Onmyodo has been on the ancient and medieval periods, early modern Onmyodo had a completely different historical meaning due to various social developments in the Edo period. First, the Tsuchimikado family gained official recognition from the shogunate so that all divination activity required licensing from them. Second, calendar creation and astronomical observations, formerly the responsibility of the Imperial Court's Onmyodo Bureau, shifted to a new "office of astronomy" created by the bakufu. This system, in which religious practitioners such as those affiliated with Onmyodo were incorporated into the bakufu's ruling framework, was dominant during the Edo period but was systematically dismantled by the Meiji government in the late nineteenth century.

KEYWORDS: Tsuchimikado family-calendar-warrior Onmyodo-Shosha negi kannushi hatto-shuinjo-manzai

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)

The first academic study of Onmyodo ... (the way of yin-yang) was Saito's study of Onmyodo in the Ocho period. For a long time, this was the only available reference work (Saito 1915). It covered nearly all the basic topics in Onmyodo: Chinese Onmyodo texts, the organization of the Onmyodo Bureau in the ritsuryo ... system of governance, tenmondo ... (astrology) and divination, rekido ... (calendar studies) and divination, ideas surrounding the use of natural disasters and auspicious signs in politics, and so on. The next serious academic work to appear was Murayama's general overview of Japanese Onmyodo (1981), the first comprehensive overview of Onmyodo history, covering ancient to early modern times. With the publication of this book, scholars were given a resource that covered Onmyodo not only of the Heian period (794-1185) Imperial Court, but also the Kamakura period (1185-1333) and Muromachi period (1336-1573) warriors, the general populace, and early modern times. However, it is clear that Murayama's primary interest was in Heian period Imperial Court Onmyodo: he held warrior Onmyodo to be an imitation of it, and the popularized Onmyodo of the masses to be its skeletonized version. Murayama's view of Onmyodo history maintained that the content of Onmyodo was gradually emptied out in each era following its peak in the Heian period, with it falling into ruin at the end of the medieval era. According to his view, in the medieval and early modern eras, Onmyodo lost its substance and became vulgarized with the passage of time.

After the publication of Murayama's book, naturally the next generation of scholars criticized his work, using it to drive their own research forward. Among them, some argued that the peak of Onmyodo was not during the Heian period, but the Muromachi period. Yanagihara Toshiaki and Imatani Akira drew attention to the fact that the onmyoji ... (Onmyodo practitioner) Abe Ariyo ?? ... carried out national prayers under Muromachi shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu ... that resulted in him being promoted to the Second Junior Court Rank (junii ...). Thus, they concluded that the era of Yoshimitsu was "the golden age of Onmyodo" (Yanagihara 2002, 123-40; Imatani 1990).1 As for scholars working on early modern Onmyodo, since Murayama barely covered the topic, they did not directly criticize his work. However, this does not mean they shared his view of Onmyodo history. Through their research, it became clear that early modern (early Edo) Onmyodo had a completely different historical meaning than its previous forms (Endo 1994; Murayama 1992; Hayashi 2005; Umeda 2009). Two landmark events in its history include the following. First, thanks to recognition by the shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi ... in 1683 through a shuinjo ... (letter bearing the shogun's vermillion seal), the Tsuchimikado ... family (descendants of the Abe family) began to manage onmyoji throughout Japan. They recognized religious practitioners and entertainers as onmyoji, certified their activities, and created an onmyoji social status group. Second, in 1684 the Edo bakufu created a Tenmongata ... (office of astronomy), and instructed it to create the annual calendar (Hayashi 2006). Calendar creation and astronomical observation, jobs that had previously been the responsibility of the Imperial Court's Onmyodo Bureau, shifted to the bakufu's new office.

Next, I will introduce the work of Seko Shinya on the relationship between Onmyodo in medieval and early modern times (Seko 1993), and then present my thoughts on the issue (see Seko's diagram on the following page, FIGURE 1).

In medieval society, various Onmyodo groups coexisted in a pluralistic way. There was the Imperial Court Onmyodo of Onmyodo Bureau officials such as the Kamo family ... and the Abe family ... the warrior Onmyodo that was its extension, the Onmyodo practiced by onmyoji from the general public, and the Onmyodo knowledge and rituals included in Buddhism, Shugen ... Shinto, and so on. Numbers 1-5 in the "Medieval Era" section of figure 1 correspond to these groups: 1. played a central role, 3. had recently come into existence, and 4. and 5. existed on the margins. In his research on Heian period Onmyodo, Yamashita limits himself to the duties and activities of the Abe and Kamo families (Yamashita 1996; 2010). To put it in terms of figure 1, he looks at numbers 1. and 2. in the "Medieval Era" section. However, this is too narrow a focus for research on Onmyodo in the Heian period and later times. In the medieval era, numbers 3-5 of figure 1 were also part of the development of Onmyodo in society-in fact, it could be said that the diverse set of developments in this area is the distinctive characteristic of medieval Onmyodo. In recent years, sound research on Kamakura and Muromachi period Onmyodo has appeared (Akazawa 2011; Kimura 2011).

Seko describes early modern Onmyodo as follows. First, the Onmyodo of the medieval Imperial Court and warriors ("Medieval Era," numbers 1-3, figure 1) continued to exist as part of Imperial Court and Edo bakufu rituals designed to serve the state and imperial authority. Second, the early modern Onmyodo systematized by the Tsuchimikado family was crafted into a religious organization that had these elements at its top and incorporated parts from the Onmyodo of the general public ("Medieval Era," numbers 4-5, figure 1) that had not been systematized by early modern Buddhism, Shugen sects, or Yoshida ... Shinto. This explanation is superb in that it understands the early modern mechanisms of reorganization by taking discontinuity between medieval and early modern times as a premise. While above I critically noted that Yamashita's research on medieval Onmyodo was too narrow, in the case of early modern Onmyodo, research should actually be carried out with a focus on the Tsuchimikado family's management of onmyoji. This is because unlike medieval Onmyodo, which is characterized by development on many levels, early modern Onmyodo is characterized by the formation of a unified organization with the Tsuchimikado family at its top.

Early modern Onmyodo was neither something that "revived" Heian period Onmyodo, nor "maintained" it. While at the Imperial Court the Tsuchimikado family carried out duties that had existed since the Heian period-nichiji kanshin ... (the prediction of lucky days and times to assist in the emperor and nobility's decisions regarding the dates of ceremonies or events), rites, purification ceremonies, and so on-this does not mean that the Onmyodo of the Heian period Imperial Court was "maintained" completely intact. Early modern Onmyodo's distinctive historical characteristic lies in the Tsuchimikado family redefining various religious practitioners and entertainers as onmyoji and creating an onmyoji social status group. This was an element not present in ancient and medieval times. Furthermore, in early modern times, this tendency was not limited to Onmyodo-it can be found in the "main temple and branch temple system" (honmatsu seido ...) of Buddhist schools, the systematization of the Honzan-ha ... and Tozan-ha ... Shugen sects, the Yoshida family's management of Shinto priests, and so on.2 It goes without saying that the organization of religious practitioners and entertainers through the establishment of honzan ... (head temples) and honjo ... (heads of social status groups) was part of the bakufu's governance. The driving force that led to early modern changes in Onmyodo was the bakufu's attempt to reuse it as a means to rule the cultural assets of Onmyodo, rekido, and tenmondo that had been preserved by the Imperial Court.

Tokugawa Ieyasu and Onmyodo

The long wars of the Warring States period (sengoku jidai ...) were a threat to the continued existence of the Kadenokoji ... (descendents of the Kamo family) and Tsuchimikado Imperial Court Onmyodo families. At the end of the sixteenth century, the Kadenokoji family's remaining descendents passed away and it ceased to exist (Kiba 1993). With only the Tsuchimikado family remaining, they took over rekido, previously the responsibility of the Kadenokoji family. Aiming for the family's survival, the family head Tsuchimikado Hisanaka ... served at the Imperial Court under emperors Ogimachi ... and Goyozei ... as well as under Toyotomi Hideyoshi ... and Tokugawa Ieyasu ... However, he incurred the ire of Hideyoshi, and he ended up running away (kb 555). After remaining in hiding for a short time, Hisanaka returned to the Imperial Court with Ieyasu's help when Ieyasu rose to power. Hisanaka began to work under Ieyasu, and in 1605 he was promoted to the position of jikkonshu ... (close associate), and served by Ieyasu's side (see dns 12.3: 142). Here, it should be noted that the return of the Tsuchimikado family in the early modern era was due to the political power of Ieyasu. If Hisanaka had not returned to the Imperial Court, there is the possibility that the Tsuchimikado family would have ceased to exist. If they and the Kadenokoji family had both died out, Onmyodo would surely have disappeared from this world.

On the twelfth day of the second month of 1603, at Fushimi ... Castle, Ieyasu received his appointment as shogun from the emperor (dns 12.1: 1-27). An imperial envoy came to the castle and a ceremony was held with many nobles present. Before the ceremony, Hisanaka carried out a migatame ... by carving a nine character spell (kuji ...) into Ieyasu's hands and chest with a small knife. Migatame is a blessing for strengthening the body. Emperors and nobility tried to prevent evil spirits and the like from entering their bodies by having onmyoji perform it on them. It became an established custom to have a member of the Tsuchimikado family carry out this blessing before shogun appointment ceremonies. Starting on the day of the appointment of the new shogun, for seven days Hisanaka carried out in the Tsuchimikado family's private residence a tensochifusai ... (festival to the gods of heaven and earth). In this way, the Tsuchimikado family came to serve the emperor as well as the shogun at the same time.

The ceremony to appoint Ieyasu as shogun served as a model for those that followed. From the fourth generation shogun Ietsuna ... onward, the ceremony was held at Edo Castle, and it was customary for the head of the Tsuchimikado family to go there and carry out migatame before the ceremony. Upon the enthronement of a new emperor and the appointment of a new shogun, the family would hold a tensochifusai at their private residence. The emperor or shogun would write their name on a tojo ... a narrative prayer (saimon ...) that was presented to the gods. In the case of the seventh generation shogun Ietsugu ... someone wrote his name for him because he was a child. This became a custom, with the shogun no longer writing his own name (Kawada 1992). This shows that the Tsuchimikado's tensochifusai was not terribly important to the bakufu.

The mi-no-hi ... purification ceremony in the third month and the nagoshi ... (passing of the summer) purification ceremony on the last day of the sixth month were two Onmyodo ceremonies that became established as bakufu annual customs. They continued to be held until the Bakumatsu ... period of the late nineteenth century. At the time of each ceremony the Tsuchimikado family would dispatch an envoy to Edo Castle to deliver to the shogun a doll for purification. Generally, the mi-no-hi purification ceremony was carried out on the mi-no-hi of the third month at the water's edge to remove bad luck; however, gradually it came to be held on the third day of the third month. Transgressions and defilement were transferred to the doll, and it was thrown away at the shore. The nagoshi purification ceremony is an event where on the thirtieth day of the sixth month chinowa kuguri ... (the passing through a hoop made of grass) is held in order to eliminate evil summer spirits. (It is still held today.) The carrying out of the aforementioned tensochifusai and these two ceremonies was more important for the Tsuchimikado family than for the bakufu. These gave them the pride and sense of privilege that they were serving not only the Imperial Court but the bakufu as well.

The Shock of the Shosha negi kannushi hatto

At the Imperial Court, the Tsuchimikado family served the emperor and nobility. The primary events that they dealt with were nichiji kanshin, rites, and so on.3 In the seventh month of 1665, shoshu jiin hatto ... (laws for temples) and shosha negi kannushi hatto ... (laws for shrines and shrine-related priests) were issued by the bakufu. In the latter, priests at medium- and smallsize shrines were ordered to receive approval of their ceremonial dress from the Yoshida family. This was shocking for the Tsuchimikado family. Let us look at two incidents that reflect this.

Around 1666 in the Kanto area, someone named Onmyo Abedaikoku Fujiwara Arikiyo ... was distributing licenses to onmyoji. Finding this suspicious, the bakufu inquired to the Tsuchimikado family through the buketenso ... (the imperial official who oversaw communication between the shogunate and the Imperial Court). The Tsuchimikado family's reply strongly criticized Daikoku and sent a petition to the bakufu (Hayashi 2005, 79-80):

Last year, there was a directive aimed at all Shinto priests which stated that even those who cannot apply for a rank in the Imperial Court should receive certification from the Yoshida family to wear their ceremonial dress. In the same way, we would like for you to order all Onmyodo practitioners, regardless of whether they are male or female, to go under the management of the Tsuchimikado family. We think that if you direct them to avoid disorder and receive their techniques [waza ...], garments, and ranking from the Tsuchimikado family, illegal behavior like that of Daikoku will naturally go away. To do so would be beneficial for the bakufu's laws as well.

(Kunaicho Shoryobu n.d.)4

As can be seen, the Tsuchimikado family was roused by the shosha negi kannushi hatto and requested the bakufu to create a similar law regarding onmyoji. However, this never happened.

Furthermore, the Tsuchimikado family had a dispute with the Onmyodo Kotokui ... family of Nara. This began with the Tsuchimikado family trying to put shomonji ... (lower-class entertainers) who lived in Nara under their management and grant them onmyoji licenses (Hayashi 2005, 80). The Kotokui family, who had been in Nara in the first place, became angry that shomonji were walking around wearing eboshi ... (formal headwear for court nobles) and joe ... (white clothing for Shinto rites), and complained to the Imperial Court that the lower class shomonji would be mistaken for venerable Onmyodo practitioners like themselves. This dispute between the two families was unable to be resolved in the Imperial Court. Lasting almost twenty years, it finally reached a conclusion in 1682 when the head of the Kotokui family Tomosuke ... passed away and Tsuchimikado Yasutomi ... replaced him as the chief of the Onmyodo Bureau in the Imperial Court. From then onward in the early modern era, the Tsuchimikado family monopolized this post, and the Kotokui family came to hold a lower position. Immediately after the Tsuchimikado family's predominance was established, in the fifth month of 1683 the Reigen ... emperor issued a rinji ... (imperial mandate) recognizing the Tsuchimikado family's management of onmyoji throughout Japan, with the Shogun Tsunayoshi's recognition following in the nine month of the same year in the form of a shuinjo.

Who was an Onmyoji?

The rinji issued by the Reigen emperor and Shogun Tsunayoshi's ratification of it by shuinjo meant that the Tsuchimikado family's management of onmyoji throughout Japan had received state recognition. Tsuchimikado Yasutomi had made a request to Mito Mitsukuni ... with regards to the management of onmyoji, and Mitsukuni discussed this in detail with the Shogun's council of elders (roju ...). After the shuinjo was released, the important sections of the bakufu behaved in accordance with it. For example, a document describing the history of the Mikawa ... manzaishi ... group states that during the reign of the Reigen emperor (Tenna ... 1681-1684), they fell under the management of the Tsuchimikado family as the result of an inquisition lead by the jisha bugyo ... (overseer of temples and shrines) (Hayashi 2002, 151):

During the Tenna years, there was a tough inquisition lead by the jisha bugyo with regards to the various sects of Buddhism and other religious practitioners. In temples and shrines, the honmatsu seido was established. The bakufu also created the ranks of negi [Shinto priest] and hakase [... diviner]. Incidentally, there was an inquiry from a jisha bugyo official as to what will be done with manzaishi, however since I am a person from the countryside I was confused and could not answer. After bowing my head to the ground and repeatedly pleading, "I humbly implore that, with your mercy, I be allowed to carry out my job," the official decided that it was his responsibility to decide this, and ordered, "While this is just between us, it would be good if they were managed by the Tsuchimikado family of Kyoto. If you speak of good omens appearing at the beginning of the month and the beginning of the day, that means you are involved with onmyodo and you should immediately go to Kyoto and ask for permission. (Toyokawashi Kozakaicho, n.d.)

In the histories of the Mikawa manzaishi group (which was active in the Kanto area from the beginning of the early modern era), it is always written that they came under the management of the Tsuchimikado family due to an administrative order of the jisha bugyo. This story is probably close to the actual course of events.

The year after Tsunayoshi's shuinjo was issued in 1863, an inquisition of a variety of religious practitioners was led by the jisha bugyo, and at the same time its gist was transmitted to each feudal domain. Afterwards, the Tsuchimikado family began in earnest to organize the people they managed, giving licenses to them, and certifying that they were onmyoji. Those they managed paid tribute to the Tsuchimikado family, and were able to be active as onmyoji. What did onmyoji actually do? In a license given by the Tsuchimikado family, the following was written:

Onmyoke (onmyodo practitioner) Jobs

* Hanhanji shojiuranaikata ... (inkan ... [seal] based divination, all types of divination).

* Shintogyoji issai no kito-no-koto ... (Shinto events, all prayers).

* Jimatsuri iegatame gokokumatsuri ... (festivals for the land, households, and an abundant harvest of the five grains).

* Shikinoharai kojinharai fudamamori ... (seasonal purification ceremony, exorcisms of wild spirits, talismans).

* Koyomi nenjikukubari ... (calendars, distribution of fortunes for the year).

* Hifu majinai yayokemamori ... (secret talismans, incantations, talismans for protection against arrows).

* Hiyomi junishinsatsu jinme no fuda no koto ... (calendars, talismans with the Twelve Divine Generals written on them, talismans with a sacred horse written on them).

* Senju manzai no koto kamiichi miko-no-koto ... (senju manzai, female shamans).

Each of these has been written on onmyoke's licenses for some time. Besides these, onmyoke can also partake in the rites for gods, festivals, and offerings to the gods and others that take place in various places.

(Todai Shiryo Hensanjo, n.d.)

Looking at this document, it can be seen that the onmyoji who came under the management of the Tsuchimikado family were able to engage in a great variety of divination, festivals, prayers, and rites for gods. However, we should note that a single onmyoji did not practice all of the items listed above. The Tsuchimikado family's assertion was that if a person practices one of the above items, they should come under the family's management. The family was desperate to bring as many religious practitioners and entertainers under their management as possible, insisting that senju manzai, female shamans, and so on should come under their jurisdiction. However, if one looks at regulations from the middle of the early modern era onward, it can be seen that they became simplified:

* One should diligently perform divination according to our tradition.

* It goes without saying that one should properly obey the bakufu's laws. One should also obey the Tsuchimikado family's rules.

* One should not engage in mistaken divination or carry out activities based on new or heretical teachings.

* Even if one is a child of an onmyoji, one should not engage in onmyodo divination without registering.

One should faithfully follow these rules and properly engage in one's profession. (Kyotofuritsu Shiryokan. n.d.)

Of these four above, only the first deals with the activities that onmyoji should carry out. The remaining three are rules to be followed after becoming an onmyoji, not rules regarding the content of an onmyoji's activities. The activities of onmyoji are limited to divination in this text. Why do this license and the previous license differ? To answer this question, let us consider the historical context.

First, having engaged in disputes with other honjo and having experienced many legal challenges to their rule, the Tsuchimikado family realized that they could fight these legal challenges more effectively if they limited the job of onmyoji to divination. They asserted that divination was the special privilege of onmyoji, and came up with the arbitrary idea that regardless of whether a person was a Buddhist priest, Shinto priest, a yamabushi ?? (mountain ascetic), or another type of religious practitioner, those who engage in divination should be under the family's management. Even though all religious practitioners and entertainers carried out divination-like activities, nonetheless the Tsuchimikado family continued to high-handedly insist that irrespective of peoples' status as religious practitioners, they should receive a license from the family.

Second, the target of the Tsuchimikado family probably changed from onmyoji who were involved in annual events and prayers in villages to those who made a living by divination in cities. While the former continued their activities, the Tsuchimikado family began to aim for a different set of people. The amount of people who made a living by divination in cities had increased enough to warrant this shift. By this point in history, a considerable change had occurred where the site of divination had shifted from group rituals, seasonal prayers, shrine festivals, and so on, to city dwellers seeking information on individuals' fates (Hayek 2008). The Tsuchimikado family needed to respond appropriately, which led to this change in the content of the licenses.

The Onmyoji Organization

The organization of onmyoji by the Tsuchimikado family began in earnest after the Shogun's 1683 shuinjo, centered around the Kinai ... and Kanto areas. They appointed their hitherto long-time subordinates furegashira ... (local administrative representatives) as leaders responsible for managing onmyoji in a certain area. The furegashira gathered tribute money from onmyoji and gave it to the family, and they also became the people who distributed licenses. A Tsuchimikado family-furegashira-onmyoji chain was created, serving as the overall organizational framework. However, after this onmyoji organization grew in size it became impossible to deal with the onmyoji under the furegashira in a uniform fashion, necessitating the establishment of further subdivisions of classes and groups. This was particularly true for the Tsuchimikado office that managed the onmyoji in the large city of Edo. From the Horeki ... (1751-1764) and Meiwa ... periods (1764-1772) onward, they tried to bring as many religious practitioners and entertainers under their management as possible, fine-tuning independently by classifying units into kokumi ... (those who have been members for a long time), shingumi ... (newer members), shinshingumi ... (those who had just became members), baibokukumi ... (religious practitioners who engage in divination), and zaizaikumi ... (village onmyoji) (Hayashi 2005, 162). The Tsuchimikado family petitioned the bakufu to once again issue a proclamation regarding the management of onmyoji, which it did throughout the provinces in the fourth month of 1791, making use of the feudal state system's organizational structure to do so. The Tsuchimikado family used the issuance of this proclamation to expand and strengthen their management. In provinces that were not yet under their control, an envoy of the family would go there and attempt to survey onmyoji-like people who could be objects of their management; however, sometimes permission was denied by the han ... (domain ruler). Even so, the Tsuchimikado family used this proclamation's issuance throughout the country to proceed forward with the incorporation of onmyoji into their management through the Tsuchimikado family-buketenso-bakufu-local administrators route. Even in areas where there was already a furegashira, sometimes a family official would go directly there, aiming to expand and strengthen their management. While on the one hand the Tsuchimikado family carried out indirect management by making use of the furegashira system, on the other hand they would dispatch family officials in an effort to bring even marginal onmyoji under their control.

The management by the Tsuchimikado family from the latter Edo period onward sought to rope in religious practitioners from other groups. They arbitrarily asserted that regardless of whether one was a Buddhist priest, Shugen practitioner, or Shinto priest, permission from the family was necessary to engage in divination. Following this assertion, they tried to bring in these and other religious practitioners under their rule, often leading to disputes (Hayashi 1994). The aforementioned baibokukumi was a unit of people such as Shugen practitioners and Shinto priests who belonged to other groups and carried out divination. Why did they use this high-handed approach? From 1683 onward, the Tsuchimikado family began managing onmyoji throughout the country; however, in comparison with the various sects of Buddhism, the Honzan-ha and Tozan-ha Shugen sects, and the Yoshida family's management of Shinto priests, the creation of their organization was considerably late. Thus, they probably thought that if they did not encroach upon preexisting organizations of religious practitioners, their organization would not grow adequately. They demanded that those who practice divination receive a license, and often lodged complaints with the jisha bugyo. When lodging these complaints, they presented their licenses to the jisha bugyo, where it was written clearly that divination was the job of onmyoji.

Calendars and Onmyodo

I have outlined how in the early modern period the Tsuchimikado family created their onmyoji organization. However, this organizational shiftwas not something limited to onmyoji: it happened with Buddhist priests such as the itinerant komuso ... and ebisu gannin ... Shinto priests including shinji maitayu ... and so on. In other words, organizations were formed by honzan and honjo, which religious practitioners joined and received licenses from. In this way, they were able to have their activities certified by belonging to these social status groups. Using honjo and honzan as intermediaries, the bakufu tried to indirectly rule over fluid and hard-to-control religious practitioners and entertainers, and was able to create social status groups of religious practitioners and entertainers.

Next, I would like to switch gears and describe how, in early modern times, the calendar was a powerful medium for transmitting Onmyodo knowledge. In the Heian period, rekido was the responsibility of the Kamo family. The calendar creation itself, however, gradually came to be carried out in the provinces. In the Muromachi period, rekishi ... (calendar specialists) independently printed and distributed calendars. A typical provincial calendar was the Mishima koyomi ... and one printed in 1437 is still extant. A world of calendars with rich local colors was created, with other ones including daikyoshi koyomi ... omiya koyomi ... nanto koyomi ... nyu koyomi ... senshu koyomi ... ise koyomi ... aizu koyomi ... and satsuma koyomi ... (Watanabe 1976, 147-355). The fifth generation shogun Tsunayoshi was the person who began to enforce the standardization of calendars. In 1685 the Jokyo ... Calendar Reform was enacted, and the standardized calendar that Shibukawa Harumi ... created was distributed throughout the country. Also, Tsunayoshi created the Tenmongata, installing Harumi as its first head. From this time onward, the annual calendar creation or reform (the creation of new rules for calendars) was the responsibility of the Tenmongata. The Tsuchimikado family was in charge of creating the calendar notes that divined auspicious and inauspicious days, but in reality they leftthe job to the Kotokui family. The Tenmongata was in charge of the parts where computation was necessary, while the Tsuchimikado and Kotokui families had the responsibility of creating the calendar notes.

In the first part of early modern calendars, the gods related to calendars and compass directions were written. The hasshojin ... (eight gods who preside over compass directions who had been in calendars since the Heian period) appear, and the directions one must be careful of during the year are written. Furthermore, for each day there is information such as useful knowledge for farming (when to plant seeds, reap barley or wheat, and so forth), as well as the (in)auspiciousness of the day (such as kurobi ... jushibi ... and kamiyoshinichi ...) (Koyomi no Kai, 1986, 329-60). Calendar notes were diverse, and appeared at the beginning of the calendar in the form of a chart. It is thought that the Tsuchimikado family and Kotokui family took calendrical and compass direction practices that were guarded by the Imperial Court and put them in the calendars. Practices such as considering the (in)auspiciousness of days and fearing and avoiding the gods of compass directions (such as the hasshojin) were originally followed most closely by the Heian nobility. However, with these practices being clearly written in the calendars of the Tenmongata, they began to enter peoples' lives. Especially notable is the far-reaching permeation into peoples' daily lives of the gods hasshojin, toshitokujin ... konjin ... and dokujin ... Leaving aside whether these gods and practices were thought of as "Onmyodo," the gods of Onmyodo and the practice of avoiding taboos spread widely from the closed culture of the Imperial Court to early modern peoples' lives. If one were to emphasize this, it could even be said that the "golden age of Onmyodo" was not the Heian era or the time of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, but was from the Jokyo Calendar Reform onward. However, I do not intend to focus on this issue: rather, I would just like to point out that if one uses as a guidepost the permeation in society of hasshojin, konjin, ideas regarding the (in)auspiciousness of days, and so on as indicators, it can be said that one aspect of early modern Onmyodo was its dissemination in the world through calendars.

The Meiji government put an end to the Onmyodo of the Tsuchimikado family with the following law issued in the tenth month of 1870:

Until now, people who call themselves followers of Tensha shinto ... Shinto as taught by the Tsuchimikado family] and carry a license from the Tsuchimikado family have passed through post-stations [shukueki ...] with efu [...]6 bearing two swords. It should be rigorously commanded to the Tsuchimikado family that from here forward practices like this are strictly prohibited, as they are completely baseless. Furthermore, heretofore practitioner licenses are completely banned. (Umeda 1971)

This law prohibits sword-bearing (taito ...) onmyoji under the Tsuchimikado family's management from passing through a post-station (shukueki) carrying a package with an efu attached to it that says, "Official Business of the Senior Second Rank Tsuchimikado Family." In other words, this law is critical of the fact that the forms of power and authority-taito and efu-from the old bakufu era were still being used. In the next year, 1871, the itinerant Buddhist priests rokujurokubu ... and komuso were banned, with Shugendo following in 1872, and catalpa diviners (azusamiko ...), female shamans (ichiko ...), prayers of possession (yorigito ...), and fox-summoning (kitsunesage ...) following in 1873 (Umeda 1971, 15-16). Thus it is clear that the Meiji government banned practitioners of popular religions one after the other. Why did they do this? Some would argue that the government, seeking to proceed on the path of modern civilization, hated "evil heresies" (inshi jakyo ...). However, this was not the primary reason. In early modern times, religious practitioners such as Onmyodo were incorporated into the bakufu's ruling framework by means of social status groupings. It is this social status system of the bakufu that the Meiji government sought to extinguish.

Footnote

1. The expression "the golden age of Onmyodo" (onmyodo no saiseiki ...) was coined by Yanagihara.

2. Regarding Honzan-ha Shugen, see Takano 1989, 169-234. Regarding the Yoshida family's rule over Shinto priests, see Inoue 2007.

3. Regarding the activities of the Tsuchimikado family, see Endo 1994, 97-116.

4. There is a detailed explanation of these two events in Endo 1994, 132-52.

5. Translator's note: The manzaishi were a kind of fortune-teller who would "announce" good fortune during auspicious times of the year such as the New Year; these figures are the precursors of the modern manzai comedians (Hayashi 1994, 169).

6. Translator's note: Efu were tags attached to packages in the Edo period so they would receive special shipping treatment.

References

REFERENCES

ABBREVIATIONS

DNS Dai Nihon shiryo ... Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shiryo Hensanjo, 1926-.

KB Kugyo bunin ... Vol. 3. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 1934-1939.

SECONDARY SOURCES

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HAYASHI Makoto ...

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TOYOKAWASHI KOZAKAICHO ...

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UMEDA Chihiro ...

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UMEDA Yoshihiko ... ed.

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YAMASHITA Katsuaki ...

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Yanagihara Toshiaki ...

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[translated by Dylan Luers]