# Sketches of Tokyo Life/Chapter 5

A WELL-TO-DO FORTUNE-TELLER.
CHAPTER V.
Fortune-telling and its Professors.
here is a common saying in Japan that “the fortune-teller cannot tell his own fortune,” and the assurance with which he predicts others’ future fails him when his own destiny is concerned. Many cynic observations have been directed against his profession; but, adages notwithstanding, he thrives, which proves, however, not so much the value and utility of his calling as the folly and credulity of his clients. Even in these progressive post-Restoration days, superstition dies hard; and still extensive is its sway, as may be seen from the throngs of votaries that flock to shrines and temples on fête-days and especially, at the annual festivals of tutelary deities. The fortune-teller’s influence is almost as unbounded over the superstitious. He is consulted by them on every occasion, be it their future lot, their present happiness, their chances of drawing a prize at a lottery, the fluctuations of the ​exchange, the consequences of a marriage, the direction luckiest for a removal, the proficiency of their family doctor, the whereabouts of a missing article, the keeping of an appointment, or the efficacy of a prayer, in short, every mortal thing in which there is the least shadow of uncertainty. Every secret is poured into his ear, and to each and every one he gives a fitting answer. His art is in request to solve every perplexing case. He is a counsellor to the old man, an oracle to the beldam, a mentor to the young man, and a confidant to the maid. He is friendly to all and so seasons his words that he raises unto himself no enemy. By his prognostications he lightens the burden of the sorrow-laden and gives greater strength to the hopeful. If we were disposed to judge him harshly, we might say that his is the privilege of equivocation; and even when his predictions are subsequently falsified, he is seldom brought to account. He retains under all circumstances popular confidence, and however his forecasts may turn out, he still hears secrets and is still consulted. This is to a great extent due to the ambiguity of his advice, from which he leaves clients to draw what conclusions they would, and if their expectations are disappointed, he proves his infallibility by explaining his predictions by the light of after-events.
Before touching upon the various forms of divination, we may mention those saws which are observed in practice as if they were maxims of established truth, though there appears to be little reason to give them currency. They arose mostly from superstitious fear caused by fortuitous incidents, though some were evidently intended merely to frighten children into good behaviour or to prevent their running into mischief. Thus, he that sleeps with his socks on will be unable to attend at his parents’ death-bed; it is unlucky if a well is filled up or a chopstick breaks; Emma, Judge of Hades, pulls out every liar’s tongue; insanity befalls him that throws nail-parings or a hair into the fire; poverty is sure ​to overtake a whistler; he that lies down immediately after a meal will turn into an ox; if we walk round another, we shall be transformed into snakes; one that wastes rice will have bad eyes; and it is unlucky to be in front of a looking-glass when the first cuckoo of the season sings, but lucky to hear its song out in the field, which is a sly hint to young women to bestir themselves when the first notes of the bird remind the farmer that it is time to plant rice. Among the saws for which no reason can be assigned are the following:—Thin lips signify talkativeness; if a pillow is thrown down, its owner becomes subject to headaches; mustard is hottest when mixed by a cross-tempered person; he that has a long second-toe will be better-off than his father; if a mosquito-net is hung by three persons, or if a toothpick is not broken before it is thrown away, a ghost will appear; a man with large ear lobes is fortunate; a long-tongued or a long-armed person will become a thief; one falsely supposed dead will live long; wealth is in store for a man that, on eating in the dark, inadvertently brings the food to his nose; a child born in its father’s forty-first year will be the cause of his death unless abandoned; one with large nostrils is a spendthrift; a large mouth brings prosperity; a fire will break out if a dog is thrown upon the roof or a lamprey under the floor, persimmon wood is used for faggot, or the crowing of a cock is imitated at night; an itchy ear presages the receipt of a present next day; poverty is the consequence of house-sweeping at night; a curse will alight for seven generations where a cat is killed; a spider caught at night must be killed; and the voice is improved by swallowing a slug. These and many others are religiously believed in and acted upon by a large section of the common people.
In addition to these sayings, there are charms, founded upon similar superstitions, which are also frequently used. For instance, an unwelcome visitor will leave the house as ​soon as a broomstick is set up on its handle or a pinch of moxa is burnt on his clogs; upon sneezing, the shoulders should be tapped three times to prevent the sneezer’s catching cold; biting the thumb before sleeping is an infallible charm against nightmare; a sufferer from headache should, to get rid of it, bind his head with a paper-twine, which is afterwards taken off and put into a mokugyo (a hollow, fish-shaped wooden block which is beaten when prayers are recited); aged persons provide against failing memory by passing through seven different shrine-gates on the spring or autumn equinox; the surest way to draw a prize at a lottery is to steal an article of daily use from a friend’s house and take it to the lottery-room; it is, however, added that the article should afterwards be as stealthily returned. To prevent the escape of a fugitive, needles are driven into the feet of a picture of Daikoku, one of the gods of fortune, obtained from the temple of Chuzenji, at Nikko; a picture of a cat by Nitta Manjiro, a descendant of a famous loyalist general in the fourteenth century, will, if hung on a wall, keep rats at a distance; a thief, by inverting a wash-tub before entering a house, plunges its inmates into profound sleep during his depredations; an incantation against noxious insects written with an infusion of Indian ink in liquorice water on the eighth day of the fourth moon, Buddha’s birthday, will prevent their entrance at every doorway or window where it is posted; a baby’s crying at night is effectually stopped by hanging over its bed a picture of a devil praying to Buddha and beating a prayer-gong; a snake-gourd from which the flower has just fallen off preserved in rice-bran, will, if given to an innocent child, prevent his taking to dissipation when grown up; immunity from measles, when they are prevalent, is ensured by the child’s putting over its head for a few moments the bucket of the sacred horse at a shrine.
Fortune-telling was practised in Japan from very ancient times. The first form of divination recorded in history ​is that in which the omen was read from the number and directions of the cracks made on a stag’s shoulder-blade when held over a fire of birch-bark. This was superseded in the third century after Christ by the tortoise-shell divination which was primarily introduced from China. The augur, after fasting for seven days, and praying to the gods of divination on the seventh day to give the true sign, took a burning piece of birch-bark and put it under a tortoise-shell, the cracks on which were read. There was a hereditary family of augurs whose duty it was to forecast in this manner twice a year the welfare of the Imperial family for the ensuing six months.
Among other methods of vaticination, we find the tossing of coins. There is an apocryphal story of Ota Nobunaga, the Taiko’s master, who was, in 1560, at the threshold of his career, hard-beset by a neighbouring daimyo and sought shelter with his army in a shrine. One day, he called his captains and proposed that they should decide on their course by appealing to the god of the shrine to aid them. He then tossed a number of coins in a dark room of the shrine on the understanding that they should, if a majority exposed obverse faces, attack the enemy. When the room was relighted, only obverse sides were to be seen; and the troops, encouraged by what they believed to be an expression of the god’s will, attacked the enemy that night and utterly routed them. It is, however, hinted that the wily general had specially prepared coins with obverse faces on both sides. Other methods were formerly practised, such as weighing a pebble picked at random in a temple-ground, augury under a consecrated bridge, and throwing combs on mats, the actual processes of which are now forgotten. A popular book of odes, containing a hundred pieces by as many authors, was opened at random and a passage read and interpreted much in the same manner as the sortes Virgilianæ of mediæval Europe. Still another form was called tsujiura, or the cross-road divination. The person who ​wished to discover his fortune went to a cross-road and, after praying to the local deity, waited till people passed by him. The chance words he caught from the third man who walked past him gave the key to his fate. Much ingenuity was required in the interpretation. Tsujiura has, however, in course of time, acquired quite a different meaning. It now consists of short prognostications printed on little pieces of paper which are put into confectionery. These are sold at night by street-venders who have always a towel on the head and carry a large paper lantern.
THE “TSUJIURA”-SELLER.
The most important form of divination is eki, literally meaning “changes,” which was made the subject of a learned dissertation by Confucius. It is said to have been introduced from China in the fourth century after Christ. In this process, six little wooden blocks and fifty divining sticks are used. The blocks which are about an inch square and five inches long, are plain on one face, but are in the middle of the opposite face marked with a red square. The blocks are taken in two sets of three each. As, in arranging them side by side, the blocks may be either plain or marked with the square, eight combinations are possible in either set; thus:—
| (A) | (B) | (C) | (D) | (E) | (F) | (G) | (H) |
THE EIGHT SIMPLE COMBINATIONS IN “EKI.”
As these simple combinations apply to either set, the total number of combinations of the six blocks is sixty-four. ​Each of the simple combinations has a special meaning; thus, the combination marked (A) represents Heaven; (B), marsh; (C), fire; (D), thunder; (E), wind; (F), water; (G), mountain; and (H), earth. The double combination also acquires a significance from the meaning of the component sets. If, for instance, all the blocks are plain, that is, either set represents Heaven, the formation means strength as nothing can be stronger than Heaven combined with itself. When earth is on top of Heaven, it means peace or tranquillity because the tendency of Heaven being upward while that of earth is downward, the two will harmoniously blend with each other; but (A) on top of (H) signifies separation or dissension as the two tend to recede in opposite directions. (H) on (G) represents humility as the high mountain allows itself to be lower than the earth. Thunder above earth indicates pleasure as the former experiences that feeling on being released from confinement under the earth; but thunder in the latter state, (H) on (G), implies return as it is destined to return to its proper element and cannot be permanently kept under the earth. A similar train of reasoning runs through the rest of the sixty-four combinations. All nature, according to eki, is built on dualism and every element, action, or condition of life has its counterpart. All things are, by this principle, classified into yo and in, the former meaning light and the latter darkness. The former has an elevating tendency and the latter a depressing influence; they also represent the male and female respectively. In practice, the plain face of the block stands for yo and the marked one for in. It would be tedious to enter into the somewhat fanciful reasons for representing the elements by the combinations of the three blocks we have above described. Eki has been studied in Japan and China as a serious science, and numerous learned dissertations have been written on the subject. Though its premises are doubtful, the train of reasoning based thereon is certainly acute and ingenious.
​As to the modus operandi of eki, of the fifty divining-sticks, forty-nine are taken up and rubbed between both hands; and after muttering an incantation, the fortune-teller parts them at random into two bundles. The bundle in the right hand is put down except a stick, which is held between the ring and little fingers of that hand; and the sticks in the left are counted off in sets of eight. To those remaining after as many such sets as possible have been set aside, the stick in the right hand is added; and according to their number, the simple combination is taken. If the number is one, the combination (A) is taken; if two, (B) is taken; if three, (C), and so on. This determines the combination of the lower half; and the same process is repeated for the upper half. The meaning of the total combination is discovered from the text-book; and the various interpretations there given are applied in a fitting manner. Thus, in this process of divination the combination is obtained from the sticks by chance or inspiration according to our view of the subject, and its signification is next applied with tact and ingenuity to the matter under consultation.
In addition to eki, superstition still finds many votaries in other modes of fortune-telling. Among these are believers in dreams. Dreams have been variously classified. One authority gives five kinds of dreams, namely, (1) divine dreams or visions, in which Gods, Buddhas, historical personages, or ancestors appear and reveal the future; (2) true dreams in which unexpected things occur and are clearly recalled upon waking; these are the only dreams that need be interpreted; (3) dreams of the heart, which merely reproduce in sleep what one has lately heard or has constantly on one’s mind; (4) false dreams, which arise from constitutional weakness or fatigue; and (5) miscellaneous dreams, which originate from one’s cupidity or worldly desires, such as making money, rising in the world, etc. The same authority does not lay down rules for ​oneiromancy, but gives particular examples. The best dreams are those of Mount Fuji, a hawk, and the fruit of an egg-plant; the reason is not known though their pre-eminence as good omens has become proverbial. Among lucky dreams are those in which one is struck by lightning, climbs a precipice, is confined underground or in a cave, crosses a sea, eats rice, carries a big log, worships a god, meets a man of high rank, sharpens a sword, sees a hermit, casts a net, vomits gold and silver, sits or walks on a bridge, reads a book, rides in a palanquin, sheds tears, or is bitten by a centipede; and among the bad are those in which the ground is covered with frost, trees grow in a room, a landslip takes place, one perspires, a looking-glass is cracked, a room is invaded by ants, or one is dressed in mourning. If caught in a rain in a dream, there will before long be an invitation to a dinner; if the sun and moon fall, the dreamer’s parents will die; and if a black cloud comes spinning down, there will be an illness in his house. Folding a screen presages longevity, and drinking water in a gully is a promise of wealth. Equally lucky are the dreams of sowing or climbing a mountain, while a marriage follows the sight of a running stream.
In casting a nativity, use is made of the twelve zodiacal signs which in Japan and China are animals, namely, the rat, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, fowl, dog and boar. Every year, month, day, and hour is known by these signs, and is also, except the hours, marked by one of the five elements wood, fire, earth, water, and metal. As each year is marked by one of the signs and one of the elements at the same time, sixty years form a complete cycle, after which the same combinations of the signs and elements are repeated. In horoscopy, every one of these sixty years has distinctive features. The elemental nature of the years is of importance in determining the disposition of those born therein. The relations between a husband ​and a wife are by dabblers in horoscopy deduced simply from their nativities and the difference in their ages. Superstitious persons, for instance, are averse to a marriage between those whose ages differ by three or nine years. A man’s nativity also influences the direction in which he should remove; and his age may permit his removal one year and absolutely forbid it the next. The north-east is considered unlucky for all. The plan of a house is also determined by the luck attending the bearings of its component parts to the centre. Many people who discover to their dismay that the direction in which they wish to remove is unlucky, only reach the desired point by making two successive removals in lucky directions which form a triangle with the unlucky one. Every day has its degree of luck for removal and indeed, according to another system, for actions of any kind, for a day is presided over in succession by one of six stars which may make it lucky throughout or only at night, or in the forenoon or the afternoon, or exactly at noon, or absolutely unlucky. There are also special days on which marriages should take place, prayers are granted by the gods, stores should be opened, and sign-boards put up. In short, the various methods of horoscopy, astrology, and other occult sciences for determining a man’s calling and actions, and the days and hours for their accomplishment are so complicated and withal so contradictory that one cannot but wonder people under their influence do not run mad with perplexity; but as a matter of fact, they manage with great tact and naiveté to reject all the methods which clash with those that best suit their convenience.
Physiognomy is also widely practised. It appears to be a complicated science, with numerous schools. As popular book gives amusing examples of different kinds of faces, from which we extract the following:—(1) A fortunate man’s forehead is high and broad, and his head large and round; the eyebrows are thin and long; the eyes are ​somewhat large and calm; the nose is not too thin and is of ordinary length; the nostrils are small; the mouth is large and merry; the teeth are large, well-set, and bright; the ears are large and the ear-lobes thick and healthy; the cheek-bones are fleshy; the moustaches are thick but orderly; the imperial consists of about ten hairs; and the whiskers are also thick and extend to the ears. (2) A beautiful woman is of medium height; her skin is very white and bright; she is not stout; her head is round, but her
THREE TYPES OF FACES.
face slightly oval; the borders of her hair are neither thick nor thin; and her hair is long and glossy black; her eye-brows are thin and crescent in shape, with a space of an inch and a quarter between them and the eyes, which are thin and long with the corners turning neither up nor down, and the pupils large and bright without glittering; her nose is high and of medium thickness; her nostrils are small and not dilated; and her mouth is also small ​and lips vermilion; her teeth are well-set, white, and bright; and her ears are large, thick, and pink in colour. (3) A woman of the meanest sort is low in stature, round, and corpulent; her face is flat; the hair coarse and thick at the borders, which are irregular and angular over the forehead; the eye-brows are low and covered with thick down; the eyes are round and turn down at the corners; the ears are small and almost without ear-lobes, appearing as if they had been pasted on; the nose is flat and retroussé; the mouth is large, and the cheek-bones are low and laterally protruding; the arms and legs are short; the teeth irregular; and the voice is hoarse. Though many Japanese may take exception to thin-slit eyes in a beautiful woman and prefer large ones, there can be no two opinions regarding the physiognomy of the very mean woman.
THE PROFESSOR OF CHIROMANCY.
Palmistry is as popular as physiognomy. The left hand is examined in a man and the right in a woman. Long fingers are signs of dexterity, and short ones the reverse. The nails should be long. The shape of the thumb determines one’s relations to one’s father; that of the index ​finger the relations to the mother; the middle finger represents oneself; the ring finger presides over the conjugal relations; and the little finger the relations towards the children. The palm is examined for three lines called the lines of Heaven, man, and earth, corresponding in European chiromancy to the lines of heart, head, and life respectively. Besides the hand, the eye, ear, eye-brow, nose, mouth, teeth, arm and forearm, and moles form each a basis of vaticination. There appears in fact to be no limit to the common credulity in the efficacy of fortune-telling.
Though we have by no means exhausted the subject, we have given enough to show how various are the modes of divination, past and present, practised in Japan; and while it is fair to add that the belief in their efficacy is fast dying out, especially among the better classes, the numerous fortune-tellers’ sign-boards which are still to be seen in the streets of Tokyo attest to the strong hold they continue to retain over the masses. Eki is the most commonly practised of all and the divining blocks and sticks lend an imposing appearance to the diviner’s table. Next to eki, palmistry, physiognomy, horoscopy, and divination by handwriting are most in fashion and often practised by one and the same man. The most skilled or popular professors of these arts live in affluence; they have servants to usher their customers into the divining hall, and put on an air of no little importance. But a majority of fortune-tellers live in courts and back-alleys, and hang out signboards in the front street. There is at least one of these boards in every street. Finding even signboards insufficient to attract customers, these humble professors of divination go out every day to public places to tell fortunes. They are to be seen in public parks, at the approaches to bridges, in the shade of avenues at day-time, or under the eaves of houses at night. Some haunt most frequented resorts, while others take to quiet nooks on the assumption that their customers would more readily unburden themselves in secret places. ​Some build temporary sheds and some squat on curtained cars, four feet square, while others sit on a camp-stool with a table before them at the road-side. They have by them a few books for show, or diagrams of hands or faces to explain the art of palmistry or physiognomy, or watch for victims with a display of divining blocks and sticks. They first ask the age and birthday of their victims; and after elaborately arranging the blocks in the usual style of eki, examine their faces and hands with a magnifying glass, paying especial attention all the while to their dresses and other indications for concluding whether they are countrymen or inhabitants of the capital. If the former, they have an easy task before them. The great point with them is to let their customer run on as much as he pleases with his complaints or explanations, as they obtain from them their cue for impressing him with their great wisdom. The usual charges of these street fortune-tellers is two sen for consultation on a single subject, so that, except in rare cases, they lead hand-to-mouth lives.
Fortune-tellers, especially of the street, are the favourite butt of professional story-tellers. Anecdotes of their wily ways are numerous. They all turn upon the ambiguous advice they give their clients. An interesting instance from real life is that of a fortune-teller who lives not far from the Tokyo Rice Exchange. Many rice speculators came to consult him, and his advice was given on the understanding that they should hand over to him a tithe of the profits they made through it, while he was willing to forego his charges if they lost thereby. Those who gained came to him, hoping to profit still further by his advice. He made a little fortune; and the man’s head was turned. Seeing that only a tithe of his clients’ gains had brought him so much money, he determined to speculate himself. He had unfortunately forgotten that a large number who had lost through his advice never came to him and that the actual gainers formed a very small proportion of those who had ​consulted him. The result was that, being inexperienced in the usages of the Exchange, he soon lost every sen he had gained by prognostications, affording one more proof of the saying, “A fortune-teller cannot tell his own fortune.”
We will close this sketch with an old Japanese story. One day a samurai was walking on a river-bank when he was accosted by a fortune-teller. When he went up to him, the fortune-teller scanned his countenance and said to him:—“I see by your physiognomy that your life is threatened by a sword.” “Do you mean,” exclaimed the samurai, angrily, “to say that I shall be killed with a sword?” “Do not doubt me,” replied the other calmly, “for, what object should I have in deceiving a stranger?” “If the sword is my enemy,” retorted the samurai after a pause, “I see by your physiognomy that you will suffer by water.” “Nonsense,” quoth the Oracle with a smile, “I know I am in danger of fire, but water does not threaten me.” “What, say you so? We’ll see about that in a twinkle,” ejaculated the samurai, and, being a strong man, he caught up the fortune-teller and threw him down the bank into the river. And so he fulfilled his own prediction.