Portrait of Abe No Seimei

8/12/2019 Portrait of Abe No Seimei

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Abe no Seimei is one of the most famous gures in the history of Onmyd,with many tales attached to his name that attribute to him special powers andaccomplishments. Tis article looks at the historical records concerning Abeno Seimei and tries to reconstruct what can be known historically of his lifeand actions. Te records show that Abe no Seimei did not reach prominenceand a high rank until late in his life, well over sixty years of age. Te article con-cludes that if theonmyji Abe no Seimei had not lived a long life, he probablywould not have achieved the unusual fame that developed in later periods.

: Abe no Seimei henbaidemonsonmyjiritsury codeshikigamifestival rituals

S Shinichi is a research fellow in the Institute for the Study of Japanese FolkCulture, Kanagawa University.

Japanese Journal of Religious Studies / : Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture

S Shinichi

A Portrait of Abe no Seimei


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D time that Abe no Seimei ( )1 was active,

there was a nobleman, Fujiwara no Yukinari ( ), whowas one of the three outstanding calligraphers of his day. We know from

his diary, Gonki (Chh [ ]. . .), that Seimei was regarded at the timeas the preeminent practitioner of Onmyd ( michi no kesshutsusha ).

On the eleventh day of the tenth month of Chho , the reconstruction of the

Imperial Palace, which had previously been destroyed in a re, was nally com-pleted. On that day, Emperor Ichij ( , r. ) moved from his tem-porary residence into the new palace building, at which time Seimei performedthe magical step calledhenbai . According to Yukinari, this was the rst timehenbai had been performed on such an occasion. Formerly when the emperorhad entered a new palace, a ritual act involving the scattering of uncookedgrains of rice (sangu ) had been made, a rite that came under the purview ofthe Onmyry (Bureau of Yin and Yang), the government office in chargeof divination, calendars, astrology, and time-keeping. So in , Abe no Seimeinot only performed a rite different from precedent, but it was done by someonewho was not an officer of the Onmyry. As to why this was permitted, Yukinariwrote, It was because Seimei was the preeminent practitioner of (onmy)d thathe attended on the emperor ( Gonki, Chh . . ).

Te henbai that Seimei performed on that occasion was a series of specialsteps used to tread the ground accompanied by incantations. An example of itsuse prior to appears in the diary of aira no Chikanobu ( ),Chikanobu-ky ki , in an item dated enen ( ). . . A prominent onmyj i

called Kamo no Yasunori performed henbai on behalf of Mina-moto no Michisato who was leaving for the province of Sanuki to whichhe had been appointed Provisional Assistant Governor. It is easy to imagine thatthis was done to ensure him safety on the road. For people of the time,henbai

* Editorial note: Tis article makes reference to a large number of textual sourcesdiaries,compilations, and so forthsome well known, and others not. Rather than add annotationsexplaining each text, we have given only the transliteration of the titles, for exampleGonki andShyki.

. Te characters of Abes given name, , would normally be read according to the Japanesepronunciation as Haruaki. However, in Japan, the names of prominent people are customarilyread according to the Chinese pronunciation, in this case, Seimei. Terefore in this article I willemploy the form Seimei, except in a few exceptional cases.


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seems to have been a magical device to guarantee personal safety when going toan unknown place or a place perceived as dangerous.2

Tus, it was not strange that henbai should have been used when the emperorwas moving into a new palace. A new residence trulywas an unknown space.In fact, the nobility of the time would not have occupied a newly-built dwellinguntil a complex series of rites focusing on the new building, including the per-formance ofhenbai by onmyji, had been undertaken. For example, Fujiwarano Michinaga notes in his diary Midkanpakuki, in an entry datedKank ( ). . , that he had waited for Abe no Seimei at the gate of his newresidence. It seems that Seimei, who was supposed to perform the rites for thenewly-built mansion, was somewhat late in arriving.3

Several tales in the twenty-seventh fascicle (Honch reikibu) of the Konjakumonogatari sh suggest that people in the Heian period considered not just newdwellings but any kind of house as a potentially dangerous space occupied byspirits and demons. Even when the nobility began using a residence a er a periodof disuse, they would have anonmyji perform henbai before occupying it again.

Fujiwara no Sanesukes diary Shyki gives us another example pre-dating . In Sanesuke was living in a residence called Nij-tei that facedonto Nij ji (avenue). He placed it for a time at the disposal of the consort ofEmperor Eny, Empress (chgu ) Fujiwara no Nobuko ( ).

During that time, he lived at another of his residences, Ononomiya, a er a con-siderable period of disuse. Before living there again, he had anonmyji calledAgata omohira perform henbai, preceded by the ritual scattering ofuncooked rice (sangu). And a er Nobuko le the Nij residence, and Sanesukewas about to move back in, Abe no Seimei performedhenbai for him.4

It was in such an environment that Seimei instituted the performance ofhen-bai for the emperor when he moved into his newly-built palace. It later becamecustomary foronmyji to perform henbai on all such occasions. Abe no Seimeihad been able to institute this new procedure because of his renown among his

contemporaries.

A Person Who Sees Demons

An important court ritual on the last day of the year was calledtsuina . Teprototype of the modernsetsubun and its bean-throwing, it was held to expel alldemons that had gathered within Japan to outside the boundaries of the land in

. In an example of henbai a er , the onmyji Koremune no Fumitaka per-formed it when generals appointed to put down the rebellion of Chiba no adatsune le thecapital (Shyki, Chgen [ ]. . ). For details on henbai, see K .

. For rites pertaining to newly-built dwellings, see S , ; , .

. Shyki, Kanna ( ). . ; Eien ( ). . .


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| Japanese Journal of Religious Studies / ( )

the four directions. It is thought that at least by the middle of the Heian periodthe court nobility were performing similar ceremonies in their own residences.In the Seiji yryaku (An outline of governance), compiled by Koremuneno adasuke (n.d.) in the early years of the eleventh century, an inter-esting anecdote concerning Abe no Seimei in relation to the tsuina is recorded:

In the intercalary twelfth month of Chho [ ], the birth mother ofEmperor Ichij, Higashi Sanjin Fujiwara no Akiko , died,and that years courttsuina was cancelled. Consequently, the prevailing moodwas such that private performances of the ritual in the residences of nobleswere also cancelled. However, as Abe no Seimei told adasuke when he vis-ited him, when he had performed thetsuina at his own residence on the last

night of the year, it had so appealed to the people of Kyoto that they began toperform it too, like an annual event. Hearing this, adasuke added the remark,Seimei is a master of Onmyd [onmy no tassha ].

(Seiji yryaku, kan , Nenj gyji jnigatsu ge)

Tis episode also appears to have been recorded in theShyki, though theactual entry has been lost, like so much of the diary. However, its index liststhe entry Chho [ ]. . . Te question of the cancellation of the tsuina dueto Court mourning, and there is an addendum that says, When Seimei beganthe [tsui]na, others followed suit (Shki mokuroku, kan , Kyin kyji). Inother words, the story as adasuke heard it was not grandiose self-promotion bySeimei but the common recognition by people of the time that Seimei [was] amaster ofOnmyd .

We have already seen that thetsuina was a ritual to exorcise demons. People ofthe Heian period seem to have truly expected that its performance would ensurethat all demons would be driven away from the land. For example, according tothe diary of Emperor Daigo, when there was an inuenza epidemic in (Engi), a er a while people came to attribute its cause to the fact that the tsuina had

not been performed at the end of the previous year and as a result it had beenimpossible to drive away completely those demons that spread disease (ekiki ;Daigo tenn goki, Engi . . ).

According to theEngishiki , compiled at the beginning of the tenthcentury, the tsuina as a court ritual was completely under the supervision of theOnmyry , and the procedure began with a ritual prayer (saimon ) chantedby an onmyji(Engishiki, kan , Engi Onmyry shiki). Seeing thatonmyji were in charge of the ritual as a whole and played an important role in it, it is very likely that the same applied to privatetsuina performed in the residencesof the nobility.

Here we see a connection betweenonmyji and demons. People in the Heianperiod seem to have believed thatonmyji had the ability to see demons. Tere


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is a tale in theKonjaku monogatari sh that relates that Abe no Seimei had beenable to see them since he was a small child (Konjaku monogatari sh, kan ,ale ). We also know from the diary of the emperor Uda that an onmyji whoserved Emperor Montoku at the beginning of the Heian period was spoken ofas a person who sees demons (Uda tenn goki, Kanpy ( ). . .). In theShin-sarugakuki by the scholar Fujiwara no Akihira (d. ), a c-tional character called Kamo no Michiyo,Onmyd Master was presented asthe ideal of anonmyji, of whom it was said, Tough he had received the bodyof a human being, his heart/mind communicated with the demons and spirits[kishin ].5

Tus, the fact that onmyji who communicated with the demons and spir-

its in mind and saw demons were in charge of expelling demons would havebeen seen as completely natural by the people of the time. And given this, thegreat inuence exerted by Abe no Seimei on the occasion of thetsuina of does not come as a surprise as he was so highly regarded.

Gen, Effectiveness

In the middle of the seventh month of Kank ( ), there was a drought. Accord-ing to the information brought by Fujiwara no Sanenari ( ) toFujiwara no Michinaga, the Festival Ritual of the Five Dragons ( gorysai )performed by Abe no Seimei had been effective, and Seimei had been given agi . Tis appears in Michinagas diary ( Midkanpakuki, Kank . . ).

Te gorysai was a magical rite performed byonmyjito produce rain. Sane-naris comment that it had been effective indicates some response, and Seimeisgi represented a reward for his work. Te entry in Michinagas diary tells usthat Seimei had caused rain to fall during a drought through the performance ofthe gorysai, and received a reward for his success. Tis suggests that Michinaga,along with other people during the Heian period, believed that theonmyji Seimei could cause rain to fall through magic.

Tis incident appears to have been recorded in Sanenaris diary as well. InFascicle of the Shki mokuroku, there is an item dated Kank . . that states,Seimei receives a reward for the effectiveness [ gen ] of the Festival of the FiveDragons. Unfortunately, the entry itself has not survived in theShyki. I wouldlike, however, to draw attention to gen of the Festival of the Five Dragons. Hereit appears in the context of Seimei receiving a reward because of the effectivenessof a magical ritual he had performed.

. Of course, not all onmyji were so thought of by all people. For example, in an entry inthe Shyki dated Manju ( ). . , we see that robbers entered the residence of an onmyji called Nakahara no sunemori, and from an item Ran gy no koto in Fascicle of theShkimokuroku, we know that anonmyji called nakatomi no Sanemitsu suffered an indignity.


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Kh ( ). . Selecting an auspicious time and day for the ritual signalling thebeginning of political activities

Honch seiki

enroku ( ). . Report to the emperor concerning celestial aberrations Chikanobu-ky ki

enroku ( ). . Report to the authorities about performing the Rite of the FourDirections to control the prevalence of epidemics

Chikanobu-ky ki

enen ( ). . Report to the emperor concerning celestial aberrations Chikanobu-ky ki

enen ( ). . Divination about uncanny phenomena for the emperor Eny Chikanobu-ky ki

enen ( ). . Henbai performed in occasion of the emperor Enys progress to theChkain

Chikanobu-ky ki

enen ( ). . Riverside purication performed for the emperor Eny Chikanobu-ky ki

enen ( ). . Report to the emperor concerning celestial aberrations Chikanobu-ky ki

Eikan ( ).. Selected an auspicious time and day for the enthronement ritual

of the emperor Kazan, succeeding the emperor Eny, and theceremony naming Kanehito Shinn (later emperor Ichij) as CrownPrince

Shyki

Kanna ( ). . Purication performed because Fujiwara Sanesukes concubine waslate giving birth

Shyki

Kanna ( ). . Purication performed on the completion of Emperor Kazansperiod of mourning

Shyki

Kanna ( ). . Divined that the appearance of a snake in the building of theDajkan was auspicious

Honch seiki

Eien ( ). . Performed henbai on the occasion of Emperor Ichij moving fromthe Gykasha to the Seiryden

Shyki

Eien ( ). . Fujiwara Sanesuke had henbai performed on returning to his Nijmansion a er an absence

Shyki

Eien ( ). . Performed a kiki-sai (ritual to expel illness-causing demons) at theresidence of Fujiwara Sanesuke

Shyki

Eien ( ). . Selected an auspicious time and day for the performance of an eso-teric Buddhist ritual and theKeikokuseisai for the emperor Ichij

Shyki

Eien ( ). . Wrote a letter of explanation about why he did not perform theKeikokuseisai for the emperor Ichij

Shyki

Eiso ( ). . Made a divination concerning the illness of the emperor Ichij ShykiEiso ( ). . Performed a purication for the illness of the emperor Ichij ShykiEiso ( ). . Ordered to perform the aizan Fukun sai for the emperor Ichij ShykiEiso ( ). . Performed henbai on the occasion of the emperor Ichijs progress

to EnyjiShyki

Shryaku ( ). . Performed a purication for the illness of the emperor Ichij ShykiShryaku ( ). . Reported that a Ninnk should be held in the Imperial Palace Honch seiki

Chtoku ( ). . Reported on whether or not divination had been performed when areport was made concerning celestial aberrations

Gonki

Chtoku ( ). . Selected an auspicious day and time for the emperor Ichijs progressto visit Higashi Sanjin (his mother)

Gonki

Chtoku ( ). . Performed henbai on the occasion of the emperor Ichijs progress to visit Higashi Sanjin (his mother)

Gonki

Chh ( ). . Performed henbai when the emperor Ichij moved from the east tothe north of his temporary palace, Ichijin.

Gonki

Chh ( ). . Made a divination concerning the illness of Emperor Ichij Gonki

Chh ( ).. Selected an aupicious day to perform an Onmyd festival (un-specied) for Emperor Ichij Gonki

Chh ( ). . Made a divination about the necessity of the Great Empress Dowa-ger, the Imperial Princess Shshi, moving residences to treat anillness

Shyki


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Chh ( ). . Selected an auspicious day and hour for the Imperial Princess Shshito move to the residence of e Masamune.

Shyki

Chh ( ). . Report on miscellaneous affairs surrounding the move of the Impe-rial Princess Shshi to the residence of e Masamune.

Shyki

Chh ( ). . Selected an auspicious day and hour for performing a re prevention

ritual in the Imperial Palace

Gonki

Chh ( ). . Was ordered to perform a re prevention ritual in the ImperialPalace

Gonki

Chh ( ). . Reported on some matter (unspecied) at the residence of FujiwaraMichinaga

Mid-kanpakuki

Chh ( ). . Selected an auspicious day and hour for the installation as empress ofthe consort of the emperor Ichij, Fujiwara no Shshi

Mid-kanpakuki

Chh ( ). . Selected an auspicious day and hour for the visit by the empressShshi to Hkin

Mid-kanpakuki

Chh ( ). . Divined whether rats in Fujiwara Yukinaris quarters in the ImperialPalace were a lucky or unlucky sign

Gonki

Chh ( ). . Selected the harmful direction for constructing the Nuidonory Gonki

Chh ( ). . Performed henbai on the occasion of the emperor Ichij movingfrom his temporary palace, Ichijin, to the newly-erected ImperialPalace

Gonki

Chh ( ). . Selected an auspicious day and hour for Higashi Sanjin, FujiwaraSenshi, to venerate a statue of Fud

Gonki

Chh ( ). . Selected an auspicious day and hour for Imperial Prince Atsuyasu(rst-born son of Ichij) to eat sh for the rst time

Gonki

Chh ( ). . * Divined whether or not the ill Higashi Sanjin, Fujiwara Senshi,should move to the Sanj residence of Fujiwara Yukinari

Gonki

Chh ( ). . * Reported on miscellaneous matters concerning the funeral rites ofHigashi Sanjin, Fujiwara Senshi.

Gonki

Chh ( ). . * Performed the tsuina, cancelled in the Imperial Palace because of thedeath of Senshi, in his own home

Seiji yryaku

Chh ( ). . Reported on the reason for the incessant res in the Imperial Palace GonkiChh ( ). . Reported on the origins of the names of the gates of the Imperial

PalaceGonki

Chh ( ). . Performed aizan Fukun sai for Fujiwara Yukinari GonkiChh ( ). . Made a divination concerning the illness of Imperial Prince Atsuyasu GonkiKank ( ). . Selected a site in Kohata for Fujiwara Michinaga to build the (mortu-

ary temple) Sanmaid Mid-kanpakuki

Kank ( ). . Asked by Fujiwara Yukinari whether it was auspicious or not toperform a Buddhist rite on a Kshin day

Gonki

Kank ( ). . Divined whether there was any death pollution at the residence ofFujiwara Michinaga

Mid-kanpakuki

Kank ( ). . Reported that it was not suitable for Fujiwara Michinaga to erect aBuddhist statue on ametsumon (inauspicious) day

Mid-kanpakuki

Kank ( ). . Performed the Five Dragons Festival Mid-kanpakuki

Kank ( ). . Divined whether or not the empress Shshi should visit haranoJinja

Mid-kanpakuki

Kank ( ). . Divined whether rumbling at nomine (the grave of Fujiwara noKamatari) was auspicious or not

Mid-kanpakuki

Kank ( ). . Performed an Onmyd ritual (unspecied) at the residence ofFujiwara Michinaga

Mid-kanpakuki

Kank ( ). . Performed a ritual for a new construction for Fujiwara Michinagasnew Sanjin

Mid-kanpakuki

Kank ( ). . Performed henbai when the empress Shshi visited harano Jinja Shyki

. Abe no Seimeis activities.

* Te year in bold indicates an extra month in the lunar calendar.


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graphs and articles concerning Abe no Seimei have frequently identied the twoas being the same. It is certainly a telling anecdote for scholars interested in thetrope of Seimeis failures, speaking as it does of his inability to prevent a thun-derbolt striking his own house.

It may be, however, that the person who appears as Izumo Kiyoaki in theNihon kiryaku is not Abe no Seimei at all. We should not underestimate the factthat the text employs Izumo Kiyoaki, not Abe no Seimei.8 Te Chikanobu-kyki refers to Abe no Seimei astenmon hakase (doctor of astrology) forthe rst time in an entry dated enroku ( ). . , while the late Heian his-torical work,Honch seiki (Chronicle of imperial reigns) mentions AbeAson Seimei, tenmon hakase, Senior Fi h Rank, Upper Grade in an entry dated

Kanna ( ). . . It is difficult therefore to think that he could have occupiedthe post of onmy hakase in , and so it appears to be pushing things too far toidentify Abe no Seimei with the Izumo Kiyoaki mentioned in the Nihon kiryaku.Nevertheless, some scholars remain convinced, despite the evidence, that Abe noSeimei and Izumo Kiyoaki are the same man.

Tose interested in Seimeis failures should note an entry in the Shyki datedEien ( ). . . Because of an astrological divination that said the star Keikokusei

was not in a good position as far as Emperor Ichij was concerned, Jin-zen , the endai zasu (head priest), was to perform an esoteric Buddhist

ritual and Seimei a magical rite called the Keikokusei Festival (Keiko kuseisai) on that day. However, Seimei did not perform any ritual for the emperor.Did he have a reason for not doing so, or did something happen that was beyondhis control? Or was there some deeper reason? We just do not know. However, as aresult, Seimei had to write a letter of explanation. Tis failure of Seimeis, which isbacked by historical evidence, is the only one known at present.

If we set aside the entry in theHonch seiki dated Kh ( ). . that dealswith theonmyji Seimei selecting an auspicious time and day for the ritual sig-nalling the beginning of political activities, the earliest and most reliable record

concerning him is in aira no Chikanobus diary, Chikanobu-ky ki. However,this record only lasts a scant three years, from to . It is therefore difficultto attain reliable information about Seimei before . Te last entry concerningSeimei is found in theShyki, dated Kank ( ). . ; a er that he no lon-ger appears in the records of his contemporaries. He may have died around thattime. At any rate, we can only follow Seimeis trail for around thirty years, from

to .A genealogy of the Abe family included in a collection of genealogies com-

piled in the fourteenth century called theSonpi bunmyaku says that Seimei died

. Some variants have the orthography Izumo no Kiyoaki/Seimei but this doesnot mean it refers to Abe no Seimei.


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at the age of eighty-ve. If we take to be the year of his death, we can esti-mate he was born in Engi ( ). If so, Seimei was already over y when herst made an appearance in theChikanobu-ky ki, and so he was already an oldman. Tis means that the only records we have of Seimei are from his old age.

Perhaps the only more-or-less reliable record that exists for Seimei before thistime is the information contained in the Sonpi bunmyakuSeimei was a student ofKamo no Yasunori, who, according to the undated Dazaifu mandokoro chan, wasa doctor of the three ways (sand hakase ), that is, of yin-yang divina-tion, astrology, and the calendar ( Heian ibun No. ). Minamoto no suneyori

( ), who lived around y years a er Yasunori, kept a diary calledthe Sakeiki . An entry dated Chgen ( ). . says, In Japan, the foun-

dations of Onmyd were laid by Yasunori. Tis tells us that the onmyji calledKamo no Yasunori who was Abe no Seimeis teacher was highly regarded amongthe Heian nobility as a preceptor of onmyji.

Te Abe genealogy in the Sonpi bunmyaku describes Seimei as originally agraduate student (tokugsh ) in astrology. Tis suggests that Seimei mayhave studied under the tenmon hakase Yasunori as an advanced student of thatsubject. We have already seen that Seimei was appointedtenmon hakase at the endof enroku ( ), in all likelihood as the successor of Yasunori. It is also thoughtthat Yasunori transmitted knowledge of yin-yang divination to Seimei, as well asastrology.9 An entry dated enen ( ). . in the Chikanobu-ky ki records thatwhen Kamo Yasunori climbed Mount Hiei to select by divination a site for a newhall, he was attended by Seimei. Tis is an indication of the close ties that existedbetween the two men as teacher and student.

Te explanation in the Kamo genealogy in the Sonpi bunmyaku that Kamo noYasunori, who was both tenmon hakase and reki hakase, planned to leave only thecalendar within his own family line and entrust astrology to the Abe family doesnot necessarily appear to be based on historical fact. Because there was no one inthe Kamo family sufficiently versed in astrology to succeed Yasunori, and as theAbe family continued to produce men procient in astrology a er Seimei himself,the result was that a er the eleventh century a system had been formed where theAbe were in charge of astrology, and the Kamo the calendar. Te explanation inthe Sonpi bunmyaku is a later creation and is unrelated to Yasunori himself, andreects the situation that had come about a er the eleventh century between theAbe and Kamo families (S , ; , ).

. Te Ruij fusensh , a collection of laws and ordinances compiled in the late

eleventh century, includes a document issued by the Dajkan dated enroku ( ). . tell-ing us that Seimeis son Yoshimasa, an astrologytokugsh, was a student of thetenmon hakase Kamo no Yasunori (Ruij fusensh, no. , enmon tokugsh). Seimeis family line was later incharge of both divination and astrology. Tis has the avor of a branch from Yasunoris lineage.


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Abe no Seimei as a Middle-Ranking Bureaucrat

According to an entry in theGonki dated Chh ( ). . , Abe no Seimeithat day acted as deputy for theShikibu taifu (Ceremonial Commis-sioner) at a ceremony ( joi ) conferring promotions on bureaucrats servingthe court. Te Ceremonial Commissioner was the second-highest position inthe Shikibush (Ministry of Ceremonies), the government departmentthat dealt with personnel matters related to the bureaucracy. Because the com-missioner could not for some reason attend the ceremony, Seimei took his place.

Tis of course had no relation to his activities as anonmyji. At the sametime, Seimei was in a position to deputize for the Ceremonial Commissioner.Tough legend and lore do not make it clear whether Seimei was human or

not, his historical personage (Haruaki) was in fact a middle-ranking bureau-crat who served the court: in other words, he was an ordinary member of theHeian nobility.10 As can be seen from , Seimei did not pass through lifeas just anonmyji.

In the article in theSeiji yryaku concerning thetsuina of quoted above,Seimei is described as Abe no Ason Seimei, Junior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade,

. Most onmyji whose names appear in records le by the Heian nobility, including thoselower-ranking officials who never ranked higher than Senior Sixth Rank, Lower Grade, were all

government officials with rank and positionofficialonmyji. A not inconsiderable propor-tion of them had the rank of Junior Fi h Rank, Lower Grade, which meant they were membersof the nobility and middle-ranking bureaucrats. For a list of officialonmyji of the mid-Heianperiod, see S , ; , .

enmon tokugsh Sonpi bunmyaku

Onmyji Kh ( ) Honch seikiKh ( ) .Onmy gonno shzoku Sonpi bunmyaku

enmon hakase enroku ( ) Chikanobu-ky ki, enroku ( ). .

(former tenmon hakase) Shryaku ( ) Honch seiki, Shryaku ( ) .

Shukei gonnosuke Chtoku ( ) maseibun-sh ( ) No. ge

Bicchnosuke Chtoku ( ) maseibun-sh, Chtoku ( ) No. ge

(rank without position) Chho ( ) * Seiji yryaku, No.

Saky gonnodaibu Chho ( ) Gonki, Chho ( ) .

Kokusin Bett Sonpi bunmyaku

Daizen daibu Sonpi bunmyaku

. Abe no Seimeis career as an official.

* Te year in bold indicates an extra month in the lunar calendar.


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without official position. Tis means that the A- of the Fourth Rank mentionedin the Gonki on Chh . . as having been asked by Fujiwara no Yukinari toperform divination was probably Seimei. According to theSonpi bunmyaku,Junior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade, was the nal ranking that Seimei received.Te fact that Seimei was possibly without official position when he deputized forthe Ceremonial Commissioner ts in well with the entry in theSeiji yryaku.

As an official, Seimei would, under theritsury code, have received a salaryfrom the court. A document from the Bureau of axation (Shuzeiry )concerning taxes tells us that on Chh ( ). . , Abe no Ason Seimei wasan official of the Junior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade, earning an income of about

koku of rice per year (Heian ibun, no. ). In the mid-Heian period, sti-pends (

iroku ) were paid from the government in the form of rice, and the

amount to be paid was scrupulously determined by rank. Incidentally, amongthe axation Bureau documents is one dated Chh . . concerning Seimeisson Yoshihira , who received an income of about koku of rice as an offi-cial of the Junior Fi h Rank, Lower Grade.

Under the ritsury code, officials were, in addition to the above stipend, givenrice land called iden (rank rice elds), differing in amount according to theirrank. An official of the Junior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade, received twentych (about y acres) and one of the Junior Fi h Rank, Lower Grade, received eight

ch (about twenty acres). Income from the rank elds amounted to around koku in Seimeis case and to around koku in Yoshihiras case.11 In addition, anofficial position also accrued a salary in the form ofshikibunden (office riceelds). As tenmon hakase, Seimei would have received fourch (about ten acres),and when he was Saky no gontayu (provisional senior assistant min-ister, eastern capital) he probably received two ch (about ve acres).

here were also semiannual presents (kiroku ) to all rank holders inthe form of cloth and agricultural implements. But even considering only themain income sources for officials (iroku and iden), Seimei would have received

an annual salary of around koku when he was of the Junior Fourth Rank,Lower Grade, and around koku when he was of the Junior Fi h Rank, LowerGrade.12 An entry in the Shyki dated Shryaku ( ). . reveals that Fuji-wara Sanesuke sold his Nij residence for ve thousandkoku, and according to

. A ( ) attempts to convert the stipend of high-ranking officials of the Senior SecondRank into yen. Te conversion of the income from the rank elds made here employs his trialcalculation.

. If we use A s ( ) trial calculation, Seimeis income would have been around

, , yen when of the Junior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade, and around , , yen whenof the Junior Fi h Rank, Lower Grade. Using the same conversion, income from his officialrice elds would have been around , , yen when he was tenmon hakase and around, , yen when he was Saky no gontayu.


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the Gonki, Chtoku ( ). . , that when a residence that would a erwardsbe used as a temporary palace for Emperor Ichij was sold, it made eight thou-sand koku. If we consider that these were the kind of prices paid for mansions ofthe high nobility, we cannot say that Seimeis income was scanty.13

However, by the mid-Heian period, when the ritsury system had become morerelaxed, middle-ranking officials with weaker positions did not necessarily receivethe stipends that were laid down for them. One of the reasons that many of themattached themselves to powerful senior officials and the high nobility as house-men (kenin ) was to use the good offices of these gates of power to securetheir income. Te Shyki, in an entry dated Kannin ( ). . , tells us thatSeimeis son Yoshimasa was a houseman of Fujiwara no Sanesuke, andSeimei himself may have been a houseman of Fujiwara no Michinaga. Until

, Michinaga hardly used any onmyji other than Seimei.

Te Highest-Ranked Person of Onmyd

In the collection of prose and verse texts calledChya gunsai(Collected recordsof court and country), compiled in by Miyoshi no ameyasu ( ), there is a document dated Chtoku ( ). . included as an exam-ple of a report informing the court of the monthly working conditions of offi-cials attached to the Kurdo-dokoro , which functioned as an Imperialsecretariat. It tells us that during the reign of Emperor Ichij, Abe no Seimeiwas appointed Kurdo-dokoroonmyji, secretarialonmyji for the emperor(Chya gunsai , Chgi ge, Kurdo-dokoro gess).

On the nineteenth day of the second month of Eien ( ), Emperor Ichij,who had succeeded to the throne in the sixth month of the previous year, movedhis sleeping quarters from the Gykasha, where he had lived as Crown Prince, tothe Seiryden, and Seimei performedhenbai (Shyki). Subsequently, mentionis found in various records of Seimeis carrying out divination and magical ritesfor Ichij. Tis was because Seimei was the Kurdo-dokoroonmyjifor Ichij.We saw above how Seimei received a promotion as a result of a particularly effec-tive purication rite he performed for Ichij when he suddenly took ill. As theKurdo-dokoro onmyji he would have been expected to carry out divinationand magical rites when the emperor became sick.

When magical rites were to be performed for the emperor, or when he le thepalace, it was extremely important that the day and time be carefully selectedto avoid inauspicious days and hours. his would also have been the task ofthe Kurdo-dokoro onmyji. F shows a number of occasions on which

. From an entry in the Shyki dated Kannin ( ). . , we know that an onmyji calledKoremune no Fumitaka built a private temple. Even Fumitaka, whose nal ranking was prob-ably Senior Fi h Rank, Lower Grade, had sufficient means to do so.


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Onmyd

When the consort of Crown Prince Atsunaga (later Emperor Go-Suzaku), Fuji-

wara no Michinagas daughter Yoshiko, died in , an onmyjicalled Nakaharano sunemori performed a rite calledtama yobai , calling backthe spirit. Tis seems to have been a form of magic to summon the spirit of thedeceased back into the body, and appears to have been a rite that was in demand.However, several days later, sunemori was punished by high-ranking peopleof the Way. Te reason was that it was unusual for onmyji to perform spiritcalling. Tis incident was reported in an entry in the Sakeiki dated Manju ( ). . . Tose high-ranking people of the Way who punished sunemoriwere undoubtedly senior members of Onmyd, in other words, the highest andsecond-highest ranked onmyji. As the incident shows us, these people controlledthe activities of onmyji in general. At that time, the expression Onmyd didnot have the meaning it does today, that is, a systematization of particular ideasand practices. Rather, it meant an organization of people of the same profession,onmyji, who were under the control of high-ranking people of the Way. 16

Nevertheless, it is likely that this control only existed between the higher andlower ranks ofonmyji who were themselves officials.17 Onmyji with officialstatus like Abe no Seimei could be calledkanjin onmyji (officialonmyji), but this does not mean that allonmyji at the time were officials. Terewere alsoonmyji known ashshi onmyji (priest onmyji), who hadthe appearance of Buddhist priests and were without official status, and presum-ably the control of theOnmyd did not extend to them.

Entries in the Shyki dated Chwa ( ). . , Chwa ( ). . , andChwa . . show that Fujiwara no Sanesuke had a man called Ken Hshi

, who must have been ahshi onmyji, perform a divination togetherwith Seimeis son Yoshihira. A written deposition concerning a certain curseincident contained in volume seventy of theSeiji yryaku mentions that aroundKank ( ), a hshi onmyji called Dman was a habitual visitor toa noblewoman, akashina no Mitsuko. Sei Shnagons Makura no sshi, in thesection Tings that are distressing to see, mentions ahshi onmyji in connec-tion with his performing a purication wearing a paper cap. It appears they werewell-known gures in their society.

Since the nobility, from around the middle of Heian period, had a greatabhorrence for spilling human blood they did not attempt acts of violence to

. For the meaning of Onmyd in Heian times, see Y .

. According to an entry in the Shyki dated Chgen ( ). . , Nakahara no sunemori,who had performed the spirit calling ritual, was that day appointed to the office of j (thirdsecretary) in the Onmyry. He was a lower-ranking official who had successively occupied posi-tions in the Onmyry of onmyji, onmy no zoku (clerk), and onmy no j (third secretary).


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eliminate political rivals, but rather employed curses. As a result, there weremany incidents involving curses within aristocratic society in Seimeis time, andin a majority of cases the curses were placed byhshi onmyji. Te Nihon kiryaku,in an item dated Kank ( ). . , mentions the onmy hshi Gennen ,who cursed the empress, as well as the newly-born second son of the emperorand the Great Minister of the Le , and theHyakurensh, a history compiled inthe thirteenth century, in an item dated Chtoku ( ). . , speaks of a hshionmyji who placed a curse on the Great Minister of the Right. According to theShyki(Chgen [ ]. . ), the hshi onmyji named Ken who frequentedFujiwara no Sanesukes residence was apprehended on suspicion of laying a curseon the daughter of Fujiwara no Michinaga. Again, in the previously-mentioned

deposition in the Seiji yryakuconcerning a curse incident, the frequenting ofthe residence of akashina no Mitsuko by ahshi onmyji was related to the factthat she used a hshi onmyji called Enn to put a curse on Fujiwara noMichinaga and others. Dman, anotherhshi onmyji who was also a frequent visitor to Mitsuko, might also have been involved in the incident.18

In contrast to such hshi onmyji, however, as far as we know from therecords available at present, official onmyji like Seimei did not lay curses. Fromdescriptions of their activities they rather protected people from curses, as canbe seen in the Makura no sshi, Tings that give a good feeling: A well-spokenonmyjiperforming purications of curses on the dry riverbed.

It is also possible that because curse-laying was performed byhshi onmyji,official onmyji had no role to play. Considering that the aforementioned Kenhad a student called Goch , and Enn had a student called Myen ,hshi onmyji who could enact curses may have carefully trained their succes-sors. Even if this were not the case, official onmyji, under strict supervision oftheir superiors, would not have been permitted to have any connection withcriminal acts such as curses.

Shikigami

Perhaps one of the aspects of the magic employed byonmyji in the Heian periodthat interests modern people the most is the art of invoking shikigami todo their bidding. Onmyji who appear in tales and legends all possess theseshikigami, which may be spirits or demons, that they are able to command freely;on occasion they also lay down curses using them. Teonmyji Abe no Seimeiwho appears in this context is accomplished at controllingshikigami. His fame in

. It is interesting that a hshi onmyji called Dman actually existed at the time Seimei wasactive, since lore and legends that were to emerge later feature an onmyji called Dman (or Dma)as Seimeis long-standing enemy. In these stories, Dman is an onmyji who places curses.


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this respect must have been widely known, for his use ofshikigami is mentionednot only in tales in theKonjaku monogatari sh and Uji shi monogatari, butalso for instance in the chronicle of Emperor Kazan in thekagami. In reality,though, there is no mention in the historical record of Abe no Seimei employingshikigami, and virtually none even ofshikigami themselves.

In the ideal portrait of theonmyji Kamo no Michiyo drawn by Fujiwarano Akihira in the Shin-sarugakuki he is described as commandingshikigami.Tough this Kamo is a ctional character, this description strongly suggests thatthe people of the time considered thatonmyjicould command shikigami. TeShki mokuroku contains the heading, It is said that ashikigami is the cause ofthe Minister of the Le s troubles, under the date Chh . . ( Shy mokuroku

, Gonayamu koto ). According to this, it appears that at the time, the illnessof the Great Minister of the Le , Fujiwara no Michinaga, was thought to havebeen caused byshikigami.

oday the details of this incident are unknown as the diary entry itself is lost,and we have no knowledge of who may have controlled the shikigami. Besidesthis, there are no other records that mention shikigami. Tere is only a deity calledShiki no kami mentioned in the Makura no sshi (When I rst began to wait onthe empress) who is said to be able to judge whether things are true or false.

Perhaps we can make the following conjecture. We see in the Makura nosshi that an onmyji was accompanied by akowarawabe (small child oryouth), who was very well versed in ritual knowledge.19 We know too that thehshi onmyji Enn, who was mentioned in theSeiji yryaku as being accusedof the crime of laying a curse, was accompanied by thedji (youth) Mono-nobe no Itomaru. Tus it seems to have been a custom of the time foronmyji to be attended by young boys, and people may have looked on them asshikigami commanded by theonmyji. A tale in theKonjaku monogatari sh conrms mysupposition; it describes how ahshi onmyji called Chitoku was accompaniedby twoshikigami in the form of boys (Konjaku monogatari sh, kan , ale ).

aizan Fukun sai

One magical rite that was acquired by the historical Abe no Seimei was TaizanFukun sai (Festival rituals of aizan Fukun). Tis was an invocation ofaizan Fukun and other deities associated with the Realm of the Dead to increasethe petitioners allotted lifetime, to bring him riches and honors, and to avertcalamity and misfortune. It was also called Shichiken jsh sai (Festivalrituals of the seven offerings and a letter of supplication). Te ritual gained in pop-

. According to the Makura no sshi, kowarawabe carried out all the miscellaneous dutieswhen the onmyji was performing an exorcism or some other rite.


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ularity from the reign of Emperor Ichij and eventually became one of the mostcharacteristic of those performed by onmyji. At rst it was used among the courtnobility, but during the Kamakura period it spread to the warrior class. Conse-quently it can be assumed that Abe no Seimei had the intention of popularizing it.

he earliest mention in the historical record of aizan Fukun sai (underthe name of Shichiken jsh sai) is in the diary of Fujiwara no Saneyori

, Teishin kki, in an entry dated Engi ( ). . . Te rst time it appears inthe orthography Taizan Fukun sai is in the Shyki, Eiso ( ). . . It had beenperformed for Emperor Ichij; according to the Shyki, a rite called Daiyakusai

to ward off calamity and disease had been intended for the previous day,but the Taizan Fukun sai was performed on this day instead. Te ritualist was Abe

no Seimei.A er , the aizan Fukun sai was frequently performed. An entry dated

Chh ( ). . in the Gonki gives an example of Fujiwara no Yukinari hav-ing Abe no Seimei perform it for him, while entries in theShyki dated Kank ( ). . and Chwa ( ). . suggest that Fujiwara no Sanesuke had itperformed byonmyji every year in the second month. And according to a doc-ument dated Kank ( ). . , around this time the aizan Fukun sai wasone of the customary rituals carried out byonmyji at court for the emperor(Heian ibun, no. ).

As is clear from the gap between performances of more than half a centurybetween and , it was rarely performed in the time of Ichijs predecessors,the emperors Kazan and Eny. According to H ( ), in the mid-Heianperiod beliefs concerning the Realm of the Dead, such as aizan Fukun, Enmaten

, and Jiz were not particularly ourishing. If that is so, it is not sur-prising to nd that the Taizan Fukun sai was not popular before the time of Ichij.

Te fact that the ritual gained in popularity from Ichijs reign may be attrib-uted to Abe no Seimeis energetic sponsorship of it. For example, according to

an article in theGonki dated Chh ( ). . , early that morning Yukinarihad presented offerings and petitioned aizan Fukun for long life. Seimei hadrecommended he do this. We should remember too that it was Seimei who sub-stituted the aizan Fukun sai for the Daiyakusai.

It thus appears that Seimei encouraged people to have theaizan Fukunsai, with its focus on worldly benets, carried out and indeed tried to widenits performance. It may seem a little reckless to attribute to a singleonmyji thepopularity of the comparatively large phenomenon that theaizan Fukun sai became, but judging from the degree of Seimeis social inuence, as seen from

the example of thetsuina of , this is not such an unwarrantable supposition.Tis social clout may well have been wielded as a result of his position as thesenior gure ofOnmyd .


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Tus it seems that for official onmyjiof the time, the position of the highest-ranked person ofOnmyd was not the result of advancement in society but acondition for it. In this sense, Abe no Seimeis rise in status came extremely late.

F shows that on the twenty-seventh day of the seventh month of Eikan ( ), Seimei selected the day for the enthronement ritual of Emperor Kazan,who succeeded Emperor Eny. We can therefore surmise that Seimei had by thistime been working as anonmyji in the Kurdo-dokoro. However, Seimei hadselected the day together with an onmyji called Fumi no Michimitsu, and fur-thermore, Michimitsu was of higher rank than Seimei. Tis suggests that dur-ing the reigns of Eny and Kazan, Seimei was appointed as the second-highe stranking onmyji of the Kurdo-dokoro.

It was around , when Ichij came to the throne, that Michimitsus namedisappears from the record and we can assume Seimei became the highest-ranked gure ofOnmyd . Having been born in , he would already havebeen well over sixty years of age. No great importance has been attached to thisfact, but Abe no Seimei did not possess the necessary condition for advance-ment until he had entered old age. His fame certainly came late in life.

During the Chh era ( ), when Seimei was described as the pre-eminent practitioner of Onmyd and a master ofOnmyd , he had risento the Junior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade, but he was already aged eighty. His

teacher Kamo no Yasunori had achieved the same rank in his ies, and his sonYoshihira in his sixties. It is apparent from this that Seimei had not advancedsmoothly in his career. Indeed, if he had not had such a long life, he might nothave won the fame that has allowed his name to become known to us.

A akeshi

Heian kizoku no jitsuz . okyo: kyd Shuppan.H asuku Heian kizoku shakai to Bukky . okyo: Yoshikawa

Kbunkan.K Shinji

Onmyd no henbai ni tsuite . In M , vol. , .

M Shichi et al., eds. Onmyd ssho . vols. okyo: Meicho Shuppan.

O Shji Onmyd saishi no seiritsu to tenkai . In

M vol. , . okyo: Meicho Shuppan.


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S ShinichiOnmyji to kizoku shakai . okyo: Yoshikawa Kbunkan.Heian kizoku to onmyji . okyo: Yoshikawa Kbunkan. Abe no Seimei . okyo: Yoshikawa Kbunkan.

Y KatsuakiHeian jidai no shky bunka to Onmyd .okyo: Iwata Shoin.

[translated by Gaynor Sekimori]

Documents

Portrait of Abe No Seimei