Recent Posts
| Welcome to the NEW Samurai Archives Japanese History Forum. If you have an account on the old forum (The Samurai Archives Citadel), you'll have to create a new account here. If you did have an account at the old forum, send a PM to "Samurai Archives Bot" letting us know, and we'll update your post count to reflect your activity on the old forum. Otherwise, you're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are many features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Be sure to validate your account via the email that will be sent when you sign up, otherwise you will have very limited access to forum features. Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| Resources on geomancy | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Jun 16 2017, 12:23 AM (264 Views) | |
| Thomas | Jun 16 2017, 12:23 AM Post #1 |
|
Rice Farmer
|
Hi all — Is/Are there a simple guide/resources to the kind of 'Bushi Geomancy' practiced in bushi circles? The alignment of castles? Auspicious days ... stuff like that? I know odd bits, the North West is a 'danger', and build with mountains to the north, fields to the south, water, etc., but it's all a bit add hoc, stuff I've picked up going along. (Anyone remember 'The Paleface', an old Bob Hope movie — Oh dear, anyone remember Bob Hope? I'm thinking of the advice the totally unskilled Hope is given as he steps out for a shoot-out with the bad Guy: "He draws from the left, so lean to the right," "There's a wind from the west so aim to the east," "He crouches when he shoots so stand on your toes.") Whether such diviners/soothsayers or whatever played any great part in daimyo affairs Depends on your daimyo, I suppose. I recall reading (on a Taiga Drama thread here?) that Shingen had such a one. Yamamoto Kansuke was his strategist, but he seems more like your standard strategist/military intelligence kind of guy. With regard to the above, in The Chronicles of Nobunaga there are dates such as 'the year of Metal Junior and the Sheep' which again, am I right in assuming, derives from the same (Taoist?) origins? I'm guessing this might be a b-i-g topic and one I know very little about. I'm trying to stay away from ninjer-whoo-hoo stuff, btw. |
![]() |
|
| chingwa | Jun 16 2017, 05:33 PM Post #2 |
![]()
Priest
|
Just a small correction, it's the north-east direction that was considered evil. As for the rest of your question, I'm not sure how different (if at all) geomancy practices would have been for the bushi as compared, say, to the court aristocracy. I imagine they would be similar if not identical. (???) I was going to mention good ol' Abe no Seimei, but it's near impossible to separate him from the woo factor, along with ninjers and Onmyoji Wizards. |
![]() |
|
| Bethetsu | Jun 16 2017, 05:47 PM Post #3 |
|
Tsushima no kami
|
No, it isn't Taoist, it is much older. The 60-element cycle (eto or kanshi), was used for days at least by the 13th century BC, the earliest Chinese writing we have. In the early Han Period it started to be used for years also, and other things, and be related to divination, etc. So Taoists used it; but they did not originate it. The cycle was the first year system used in Japan, before eras. So, even if the cycle was often used for divination, most often it was simply a date. The kanoto-hitsuji 辛未 in the Nobunaga Chronicles was just a year date. For more on the cycle see http://wiki.samurai-archives.com/index.php?title=Year_dates http://wiki.samurai-archives.com/index.php?title=Sexagenary_cycle |
![]() |
|
| Thomas | Jun 18 2017, 11:32 PM Post #4 |
|
Rice Farmer
|
Hi Chingwa — Oops, yes, down to my crappy sense of direction! With regard to geomancy, I did not mean bushi particularly, I should have made that clear, and as you point out, the practice was wider than that. Well, Abe no Seimei is mentioned in Samurai Archives, which is my go-to acid test of credibility! And hi Bethetsu – Thanks for the info and pointers. I've just remembered Otake-sensei's "The Deity and the Sword" Volume II which has some stiff on 'inyo-gogyo tenko', some aspects of geomancy practiced by the Katori Shinto Ryu... enough to keep me going. Edited by Thomas, Jun 18 2017, 11:41 PM.
|
![]() |
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
![]() Join the millions that use us for their forum communities. Create your own forum today. Learn More · Register for Free |
|
| « Previous Topic · Japanese History - Beginner's Guide & Resources · Next Topic » |







9:01 AM Jul 11