著者

小林 康正 Yasumasa KOBAYASHI 京都文教大学人間学部・文化人類学科 KYOTO BUNKYO UNIVERSITY Department of Cultural Anthropology

出版者

京都文教大学

雑誌

人間学部研究報告 = Reports from the Faculty of Human Studies, Kyoto Bunkyo University (ISSN:18843743)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.10, pp.87-113, 2008-03-25

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Seimei-gaku, also known as Seimei-Handan, (predicting a person's fortune on the basis of his surname and first name) is a popular fortune-telling method in Japan. It is traditionally believed that this method originated in ancient China and later began to be used in Japan; however, in reality, seimei-gaku was invented in modern Japan. In 1901, Sasaki Mono (1860-1902?), the inventor of Seimei-gaku, used newspapers to awaken the interest of people. This paper aims to explore the relationship between the demand for Seimei-gaku and large-scale publication of popular newspapers in the early twentieth century. Faith in Seimei-gaku was based on the magic of the printed word, and it was created by a media-saturated society. Seimei-gaku can be regarded as a superstition held by typographic man. During this period, the importance of information increased in association with the exponential growth of the market society, and the value of everyday-life experiences in traditional communities declined. Consequently, newspaper became an integral part of people's life. Seimei-gaku is considered to be a part of the information provided by newspapers. It had two prominent types that enabled it to achieve its objectives. One was reading a person's mind, and the other, predicting his future. These are the requisite skills for achieving success in an expansionary economy during the development of a market society.

著者

小林 康正

出版者

京都文教大学

雑誌

人間学部研究報告

巻号頁・発行日

vol.9, pp.33-60, 2006

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This paper aims to shed light on the discourse of "destiny" in the era of Japan's industrial revolution, and to explore the implicit and explicit relations which it has to other discursive entities and to the contemporary social arrangement. In order to do so, I chose to focus on poet Ishikawa Takuboku (1886-1912), and to trace the change of his thought on "destiny" during his life. During the period of social change in the Meiji Restoration, risshin shusse (climbing up the social ladder) was commonly accepted as the most important idea. The Meiji youth were expected to struggle for it. In the early twentieth century, risshin shusse, which was encouraged by the substantial economic growth of the time, impelled the Japanese ambitious youth to strive for their own "success" (seikou), and this word acquired a new meaning that built up a fortune. However, the stabilization of social order and frequent recessions in the second half of the Meiji led most of them to failure. In such circumstances, those people who escaped from fierce competition for acquiring money or status emerged one after another. They were called "anguished youth" (hanmon seinen). It was thought that their excessive aspiration had to be cooled down so as to calm their anguish. Therefore, a large body of literature focusing on "cultivation" (syuyou), which advised the youth to conduct themselves impeccably, was published. This useful literature helped the youth to set suitable objectives for their social position. As the capitalist economy rapidly developed, the discursive space whose folk terminology consisted of words such as "success", "anguish", "cultivation", etc., was built up. During the radical changes in the world during this time, people participated in it, and used this terminology as a compass to find the way to their goal. Nevertheless, it is clear that the discursive space reflected an ambivalent attitude toward life. The characteristics of it are made explicit in the usage of the ward unmei ("destiny", or, "fate"). In those days many people insisted that they ought to "carve out their own fortune" (unmei no kaitaku) ; on the other hand, many books, which claimed that they held, m "the secret of success" (seikou no hiketu), were published. Takuboku was an ambitious young man of the Meiji era who lived in the discursive space. Therefore, his attitude to destiny was ambivalent. It follows from this that the investigation into his thoughts on destiny elucidates the significant characteristics of the discursive space in the era of Japan's industrial revolution.