When I did some quick looking for information on Onmyoujutsu in English, it basically seemed like there weren't any. I'd be happy to hear differently from people who have found them; in fact, please email me with the links. In the meantime, I'm going to gather what Japanese language resources I can and translate them here. Any good English-language resources I find or that are given to me will be linked from this page.
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Onmyoudou Source: Wikipedia (Japan) |
Translator's Note: The difference between "-dou" and "-jutsu" is subtle, as most people who study martial arts are aware. I tend to think of them as referring to aspects of the same idea or school, with the "-dou" aspect (meaning "way") taking a more academic flavor and the "-jutsu" aspect (meaning "art" or "technique") being more in the realm of practical application. American Wikipedia also has a copy of this article, which at first glance looks basically like a complete translation as far as the main text is concerned, but I'm going to do my own version of the Japanese to be sure. My translation is not yet complete; I will be updating it as I go. ONMYOUDOU Onmyoudou, born in ancient China as a school of natural philosophy based on the theory of the forces of yin and yang and of the five elements, achieved a characteristic in Japan of both a natural science and a system of magic. [paragraph skipped to translate later] History Around the 5th and 6th centuries, when the theory of the cosmic forces and the five elements was brought to Japan by way of the Korean Peninsula along with Buddhism and Confucianism, practices for observing effects on nature due to the cosmic forces and the five elements -- such as astronomy, calendar making, the dividing of time, and fortune-telling -- joined with divination, auspices of nature, the foretelling of disaster, and the prediction of the fate of the human world as crafts accepted by the Japanese public. Crafts such as this, though at first taken up primarily by immigrant monks who could understand how to read and write Classical Chinese, soon had to be practiced by ordinary persons as the practice became necessary for the Imperial Court; and so, in the late 7th century one might first see the Onmyouji. Beginning in the late 7th century and 8th century, when the ritsuryo system [legal codes based on Chinese government] was at its peak, the art of the cosmic forces was organized into a College of Onmyou established under the central administration [in Wikipedia, Nakatsukasa Department]. The College of Onmyou were followers of Onmyoudou, astrology, calendar division, various means of predicting fates, astronomical observation, and the direction of calendar creation. Also, monks were forbidden by decree from explaining astronomy, disasters, and good omens, as the Onmyouji had monopolized the management of the country. In the Heian Era thereafter, with the fall of the ritsuryo system and the rise of the Fujiwara Clan, the form continued to evolve the rising interest among members of the imperial court in such things as onryou (vengeful ghosts) and ancestor worship; Onmyoudou became a method of fortune-telling and a magical art for the revelation of means to avoid disaster that acted as a guideline for even the daily life of the Emperor and the members of the court. Additionally, Onmyoudou spread from the imperial court to popularity among the common folk of Japan, permeating the well-informed among private citizens via priests and Onmyouji -- thus reinforcing the development of its Japanese character. [to be continued] |