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Do old superstitions still influence our modern lives? Are you afraid of the Devil Gate?

In ancient Japan (and even to some extent in modern Japan) certain directions were considered as negative and especially the northeast - called Devil Gate - was seen as a quarter from which demons could assault you.

We are in the realm of geomancy here which in China was called Fengshui. This art goes back all the way to the mists of time： basic geomancy was already practiced in the Shang Dynasty of 16th-11th c BCE. It was used in laying out palaces and cities. Fengshui is still popular in China, to align buildings or decide the lay-out inside. In the past, Chinese compounds had a “ghost wall”, a wall standing a meter or so behind the gate, so that you could not enter straight ahead, but had to turn a corner. This was to stop ghosts, as denizens of the other world apparently would be fooled by the wall…

And such techniques are still frequently used in China and by Chinese living elsewhere. A Chinese friend of mine expressed concern when he saw that in The Hague an office tower had been built right on top of the highway - which according to him meant that demons would be riproaring through the building!

[The northeast corner of the Imperial Palace in Kyoto is lacking]

In Japan geomancy was introduced in planning the earliest capitals of Fujiwarakyo and Heijokyo, and it also played an important part in the layout of Heiankyo, the later Kyoto, in 794.

Kyoto of course lies in a protective valley and is only open to the south - ideal geomantic conditions.

In Chinese mythology four guardian deities protect the cardinal points of the universe. They are:

The Blue Dragon on the stream of the east
The White Tiger on the large highway of the west
The Crimson Phoenix on the swamp of the south
The Black Turtle on the high mountain in the north

In the case of Kyoto, these deities were identified as follows:

The stream of the east, abode of the Blue Dragon, is the River Kamo (the river was diverted a bit to form the eastern border);

The large highway of the west, home of the White Tiger, is the Tanba Highway (originating in Konoshima-oji, a long straight road lined with a canal that was built along the western border of Kyoto)

The swamp of the south, frequented by the Crimson Phoenix, was Ogura Lake (a large body of water since then drained and filled in);

The high mountain of the north, the haunt of the Black Turtle, is Mt Funaoka (not really so high, but it stood at the back of the first Heian palace, right on the central axis of the city).

[Enryakuji Temple protects Kyoto's vulnerable northeastern direction]

As said in the beginning of this post, both in China and Japan “directional taboos” were important: there was a great dread of the Kimon, the northeast, as the most inauspicious direction.

At the dreaded Kimon in the northeast stood Mr Hiei. When Emperor Kammu built Heiankyo in 794, he asked the priest Saicho to build a large temple in this evil direction, to protect the capital from invasion by the forces of darkness. This is present-day Enryakuji, where still prayers are offered for the protection of Kyoto.　(For the same reason, Tokugawa Ieyasu had Kaneiji temple built on Ueno Hill, in the Devil Gate direction from his castle in Edo).

The northeast was so hated, that even northeastern corners in buildings were avoided. The wall around the Imperial Palace in Kyoto (Gosho) is therefore indented!

In building an ordinary house, the Japanese would of course also avoid positioning the entrance in this direction, and they would also not make a kitchen, bath or toilet there. They would never remove to a house situated in the evil direction of the one they were originally living in.

Today, of course, these concepts are largely forgotten and we are free to have our doors and kitchens wherever we want. Although… corpses used to be carried out of the house with the head pointing to the north and even today the Japanese try to avoid sleeping with their head in a northern direction.

Would you mind in which direction you sleep?