READING QUESTIONS WEEK 2B

[Japanese Tales] Stories about Yin-Yang Wizardry (Onmyôdô) and Abe no Seimei

Abe no Seimei was a historical person (921?-1005) who worked as an onmyôji (yin-yang wizard) for the Bureau of Divination. After his death, many legends developed about his powers, some of which are detailed in the stories in Japanese Tales. One of the legends is that his father, Abe no Yasuna, was human, but his mother, Kuzunoha, was a kitsune (a "fox spirit"). This story will return the week that we learn about foxes. In a number of stories both Abe no Seimei and his rival onmyôji are thought to be able to control supernatural beings called shikigami (translated as "genie" by Royall Tyler). They send them on errands, both nefarious and good.

The four stories presented here are all from Uji shui monogatari (A Collection of Uji Tales), dating from the 13th century (so several hundred years after Seimei's death).

a. In the stories, what are Seimei's powers? In what situations are onmyôji brought in? How do they resolve the problem? Is there a clear distinction between Buddhist monks and onmyôji?

If you want to read more about onmyôji, tales #162-166 are about less famous diviners.

And here is a link to the movie trailer for Onmyôji (2001) about Abe no Semei, with Semei played by the kyogen actor Nomura Mansai. In class we will look at several other contemporary versions of this movie in class, including figure skating at the Olympics.

Here is the link to the wikipedia article on the movie, including a plot synopsis