An Inquiry into Japanese Early Modern Divination
by Matthias Hayek

This kind of divination, hakke-uranai, was closely related to Onmyodo, or On’yodo, the “Way of Yin and Yang”, and thus essentially to the lore and science of calendars and popular almanacs, with applications in religious rites.

The will to offer a correct(ed) knowledge to guide the ignorant on the right path is congruent with the Confucian ideal of self-cultivation and conformity to the Principle which was brought to the foreground by early-modern Japanese thinkers.

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Originally published in the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 38:2 329–368.
Republished here with thanks to the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture.