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.