FORTUNE-TELLING BOOM IN JAPAN

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 236, 6 October 1938, Page 8

FORTUNE-TELLING BOOM IN JAPAN

Widespread Belief in Astrology

rpHE fortune-telling business, always f prosperous in the Japanese capital, has experienced a noteworthy boom since the beginning of the war in China, writes the Tokio correspondent of the London Observer. Soldiers and members of their families are besieging the offices of the 4,000 sooth-sayers of Tokio to find out whether they will escape from the hazards of war. Widespread belief in astrology, necromancy, and other occult practices is one of the most marked survivals of medievalism in Japan. There are millionaires, extremely shrewd in the practical affairs of life, '* who will never begin a journey, start building a house, of undertake any 1 other important enterprise on a sup- j ' posedly unlucky day, and who regularly consult the stars before venturing operations on the stock exchange. Soothsaying, like every other Japanese activity, is under the close supervision of the police, and a police official in touch with this subject re- ' cently classified as follows the five 1 chief methods of telling fortunes: — 1 (1) Close scrutiny of various parts of the anatomy, with the aid of a large _ chart. (2) Star and zodiac method (3) Numerology. (4) Judgments based on the position of the client’s house. (5) Blood tests. i The last method, for understandable i reasons, is less popular than the other ; four. Fees vary widely, ranging from j the few ssked lay kumble practi- i

, tioners of the art to sums as k.rgs as fifty yen (about three pounds) which famous sorcerers occasionally cbtain from wealthy patrons. The police state that there are jew complaints about the fees, because the prophecies are couched in such ambiguous terms that some parts of them are almost certain to come true. Fashions in fortune-telling vary like modes in women’s clothes and hats* Deer bones and tortoise-shells have enjoyed a vogue at times. Now a combination of the anatomical and zodiac methods is much in use. The soothsayer provides himself with a chart showing all kinds and shapes ol hands, feet, mouths, ears, skulls, and other portions of the human body. The client is invited to compare his own physical attributes with the chart and the soothsayer undertakes to cast up the balance of weal or woe. Other calculations are based on the twelve signs of the zodiac, which in Japanese lore are personified by various animals, such as the boar, the horse, the tiger, the rat, the bull, the cock, etc. Some seers keep on display pictures of all these animals, which, for some reason, are fully clothed, the boar in foreign dress, the others in Japanese kimono, while the snake is provided with a hat. Various qualities are associated w:*h the years which are named after t e animals; and the question whether e is born in the year of the rat, or the year of the tiger is considered equa.ly important with the size of one’s hand' feet, and ears.