Japanese Superstitions
May 08, 2007
The following is a fairly long list of Japanese superstitions, or at least the ones that I do not recognise has existing in the UK. But I may be wrong about origins. Most of them are not connected with Shinto directly but there are a few towards the end. Many of them are from the Japanese language Wikipedia article on superstions.
If you whistle at night a snake, ghost or monster will come and get you. Originates in the time when there was slavery in Japan and one would attract a trader (to whom one might sell someone) by whistling at night. Thus children were taught to avoid whistling at night by stories of snakes and ghosts. This was the 3rd most popularly believed superstition among Japanese men and women in 2006.
There are many superstitions related to the Chinese calendar and various regular unlucky and lucky days related to Buddhist 'six day' interpretations of the calendar. The six day cycle
includes "daian" (big peace) the most auspicious day, "butsu metsu" (anihilation of the Buddha) the most unlucky when it is a bad news to hold a wedding (and wedding reception halls
are very cheap) and tomobiki (friend pulling) on which day it is bad news to hold a funeral lest friends of the deceased are pulled towards their deceased friend.
A calendar related superstitions that seems to have been widely believed is that females born in the year of the fire horse ("hi no e uma") every sixty years, last time 1966) will turn
into devils and cause suffering to their husband and children. The birth rate in Japan nominally declined by 25% in that the last Fire Horse year. I say "nominally" because, for example, a family member of mine is registered as having been born on the first day of 1967 but there is some question, at least in my mind, whether she may not have been born a little earlier. She is charming and her family members are fit and well.
Children who go to sleep with their shoes on will die before their parents (literally, "will not be present at their parents death"). Apparently this originates in advice for over-protective parents, especially considering that children use their feet to control their body temperature so they are better off without nocturnal foot covering.
People who cut their nails at night will die before their parents. Perhaps this is because of the danger of cutting ones self in the dark and and getting an infection. There is also a pun
on "night nails" and "shortening ones time" both rendered Yotsume or Yodzume. This was the most popularly believed superstition among Japanese men and women in 2006.
If you eat seaweed such as Wakame and Konbu (typically included in Japanese soups) then you will get more hair. I guess that his originates in the visual similarity between thick black Japanese hair and seaweed. I can vouch for the fact that this superstition is untrue, since I like both wakame and konbu but my hair has largely fallen out.
A cold will get better after you have given it to one hundred people. Perhaps this is one reason why the Japanese are particularly keen to wear masks when they have colds. The
mask prevents them from giving their cold to others. If they did not wear the mask then they would not just be careless, but thought to be selfishly trying to give their cold to one
hundred people so as to cure it. This superstition was particularly popular amongst men (4th most popularly) rather than amongst women (9th most popularly believed).
If you hiccup one hundred times you will die. Perhaps this was a way of getting rid of the hiccups since it is know that concentrating on something (such as a counting task - typically
counting backwards from one hundred) is likely to cure ones hiccups.
If you see a hearse you should hide your thumb (your parent finger) lest your parent or a relative should die. This is surely partly due to the pun on thumb (parent finger) and parent. This was the 2nd most popularly believed superstition among Japanese men and
women in 2006.
There are many superstitions related to puns and the power of words. It is bad luck to say "go home" or "split" at a wedding lest the bride or the couple should do just that.
If pull out white hair then you will grow more. This may be said in other countries, and may not originate in Japan.
If you sneeze then it means that someone is gossiping about you. If you sneeze once then someone is praising you and if twice then someone is speaking ill of you.
If a tea leaf stalk to the surface in your (green japanese) tea it is good luck. This may be a way of consoling people with tea leaf stalks caught in their teeth.
Stupid people do not catch colds. This may be a way of consoling peopel with colds - at least it proves you are not stupid.
The cawing of crows is an unlucky omen.
It rains when cats wash their faces.
If you dream of a snake you will get rich. Snakes are generally connected with money. People put snake skins in their wallets or make wallets out of snake skin. Finding a snake skin around the house is a good thing (at least as long is not that of a poisonous snake). People born in the year of the snake (like myself) will not trouble for money, aparently.
You should not sleep with your pillow to the North since this is the way that the dead are laid to rest so that their soul knows to go in the right direction. I am not sure where (I would have thought to the West since that is the direction of the pure land, but...)
You should not kill a spider that you see in the morning or night. I think that it may be reincarnated relative that has come to watch over you. Perhaps.
It is unluckey to eat eel and pickled plums (ume boshi). Both eels and pickled plums are strong tastying salty foods. If one had the sort of rich taste in food to want to eat both eel and pickled plum in the same meal then one might have a blood pressure problem.
If you lie down straight after eating then you become (as fat as) a horse. Is this a superstition or just common sense?
Similarly common sensical is that yawns are infectious. They really are, even among humans and pets.
Stupid people like high places. This is perhaps to encourage humility. High places suggests the ability to look down on others, which is what stupid people like to do. Alas, I like high places with good views.
Something that happens twice will happen a third time. A lot like the Western superstition about bad/good things coming in threes.
If you fold 1000 origami cranes (birds) then you will be cured of disease. This superstition was made famous by the attempt by Sadako Sasaki, an 9 year old girl at the time when, at home
one mile away from ground zero, an atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. At age eleven she developed lukemia and made 1300 cranes from medicine wrappers and scraps of paper, in an
attempt to get well enough to run againt, before her death at the age of 12. Her story became famous with the publication in 1977 of "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" by Eleanor
Coerr.
These Shinto related "superstitions" may be theology rather than superstition.
If you put a piece of rock on the top of one of the two lintles of a twin lintled shrine gate then you will be lucky.
If you pray at a shrine one hundred times the kami will grant your wish.
You should vist shrines and make offerings in the morning.
If you select an unlucky fortune strip of paper (omikuji) at a shrine then you should tie it to a tree at the shrine and leave it there, but if you select a lucky fortune strip then it is okay to put it in your pocket as a sort of talisman for a while.
A modern one is, if a couple go on their first date to Disney land, in Tokyo presumably, then then the couple will split up.
Similarly modern sounding is if you pierce your ear and a white thread appears from the hole, then if you pull it you will go blind.
I don't understand the Japanese of the one about new shoes. What does it mean to "orosu" (put down) ones shoes in the morning? New shoes should be put down in the morning. Perhaps orosu is another way of saying "taken off," and perhaps this just then refers to a way of avoiding the blisters that accompany the wearing of new shoes.
The number 4 is unlucky since it is pronounce in the same way as the word for death. The number nine is also similarly a homonym for suffering. These numbers are therefore often avoided in hospital and hotel room and floor numbering systems.
The number of strokes it takes to write the kanji in ones name determines ones luck. This site in Japanese allows you to find out if any particularly surname, given name combination is lucky or unlucky. We consulted it when choosing the name of our son.
http://www.naming.jp/
Next ones are a little bit sexual, so do not read on if you find that sort of thing offensive.
The only 'superstition' mentioned in the Wikipedia article directly related to Shinto is that preventing women from entering certain places, particularly tunnels. The reason being that the "yama no kami" god of the mountain, would be annoyed to have another female entering her 'tunnel'. There are many places which women due to their being defiled are also not allowed to enter such as behind the sushi bar counter (the fish would rot), a Sumo wring
(the subject of some controversy), the baseball dugout and some sacred mountains.
If gentlemen or boys urinate on worms then their penis will swell up, and probably not in a good way (judging from the kanji).
The above was based on these Japanese language pages Excellent large scale survey of most commonly believed superstitions according to sex
http://www.fgn.jp/mpac/sample/datas/impacter/200607_29.html
Japanese Wikipedia article on superstitions
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%BF%B7%E4%BF%A1
Blog article about superstitions
http://www.mix-up.jp/sakana/archives/2006/02/post_168.html
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