Nine Stars

This is a superstition that was introduced to Japan's Onmyodo (Onmyodo) from ancient China and spread among the general public by practitioners of horoscopes. It is mainly practiced among fortune tellers and is recorded in the Takoshima calendar and other documents. The nine stars of Ippaku (First White), Jikoku (Second Black), Sanpeki (Three Green), Shiroku (Four Green), Goou (Five Yellow), Roppaku (Six White), Shichiseki (Seven Red), Happaku (Eight White), and Kyuushi (Nine Purple) are assigned to the five elements of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water, and are then distributed to the Ten Heavenly Stems and Twelve Earthly Branches to create a Nine Star Chart that links them to the Eight Trigrams. These are then used to predict people's fortunes and the good and bad luck of directions, etc., by allocating directions to the Eight Trigrams to determine the main shrine. For example, Ichi-haku is Mercury, whose main palace is in the north, Nikoku is Saturn, whose main palace is in the southwest, and San-heki is Jupiter, whose main palace is in the east, but the Nine Stars go retrograde every year, and the central star moves and changes. When a person's star is in the central position, it is called the main star, and the year will be a year of eight-way target killing (blockage in all directions), and if the star is in the south, the north will be a target killing and should be avoided. When a star is in the central Chugoku, other adjacent stars will take their place and occupy the main palace, which is called the Anken-satsu direction, and is considered to be a great misfortune.

[Shoji Inoguchi]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

古く中国から日本の陰陽道(おんみょうどう)に伝わり、方術の徒によって民間に広められた俗信。主として売卜者(ばいぼくしゃ)の間に行われ、高島暦などに記載されている。一白(いっぱく)、二黒(じこく)、三碧(さんぺき)、四緑(しろく)、五黄(ごおう)、六白(ろっぱく)、七赤(しちせき)、八白(はっぱく)、九紫(きゅうし)の九星を、木、火、土、金(ごん)、水の五行(ごぎょう)にあて、十干十二支(じっかんじゅうにし)に配して八卦(はっけ)に結び付けた九星図をつくり、方位や人の生まれ年にあてて、人間の運勢や方位の吉凶などを占う。また方位を八卦に配当して本宮を決める。たとえば一白は水星で北方を本宮、二黒は土星で西南を本宮、三碧は木星で東方を本宮などとするが、九星は毎年逆行して中央の星が移動交替する。ある人の星が中央の座にあたるとき、これを本命星といい、その年は八方的殺(てきさつ)（八方ふさがり）となり、星が南にあると北方を的殺として慎むべきだとする。ある星が中央の中宮にあるとき、他の隣接した星がかわって本宮を占めるものを暗剣殺方といい、大凶とするなどがある。

［井之口章次］

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