Fortune telling at a crossroads - Tsujiura

Also called Yuuke or Michiura. It is the act of going out to a crossroads in the evening to overhear what people passing by say and tell their fortunes. The Man'yoshu, Volume 4, states that "On moonlit nights, I would go out to the gate and ask for evening fortune-telling, and would ask for foot divination, hoping to find someone to read." This has been practiced since ancient times. It is said that the person would listen to the voices of passersby while holding a small boxwood comb and praying to the gods. In his Seibokuko, Ban Nobutomo writes that the place does not necessarily have to be a crossroads, and that fortune-telling is not necessarily something that women do. Since the Edo period, tsujiura peddlers have appeared, selling slips of paper with predictions of good or bad luck written on them to passersby. In addition to fortune-telling at tsuji, some also sold rolled rice crackers or karinto with papers with fortune-telling results written on them. According to Wakatsuki Shiran's "Tokyo Annual Events," toward the end of the Meiji period, red-painted automatic tsuji-uranai boxes appeared at the intersections of Tokyo. When a one-sen copper coin was inserted into the hole in the box, a fortune card would appear. The book states that these boxes sold well and were set up all over Japan, even in Korea and China.

[Oto Tokihiko]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

夕占(ゆうけ)、道占(みちうら)ともいう。夕方、道辻に出てそこを通る人のことばを小耳に挟み、占いをすること。『万葉集』巻四に「月夜(つくよ)には門(かど)に出(い)で立ち夕占問ひ足卜(あしうら)をぞせし行かまくを欲(ほ)り」とあり、古くから行われていた。黄楊(つげ)の小櫛(おぐし)を持ち神を念じながら道行く人の声を聞いたといわれる。伴信友(ばんのぶとも)は『正卜考(せいぼくこう)』のなかで、場所はかならずしも四つ辻とは限らず、また占いは女がするものとは決まっていないと述べている。江戸時代以来、辻占売りというものが現れて、吉凶の文句などを書いた紙片を道行く人に呼び売りするようになった。また辻占のみでなく巻き煎餅(せんべい)やかりんとうに占いの結果を記した紙を挟んで売るものもあった。若月紫蘭(しらん)の『東京年中行事』によると、明治の末ごろ東京市の辻々に赤塗りの自動辻占箱が現れた。箱の穴に一銭銅貨を入れると占い札が出るようになっていた。これがよく売れて日本全国から朝鮮や中国にまでこの箱が設けられたと記されている。

［大藤時彦］

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