The most famous onmyouji of the mid-Heian period.
According to legends passed down in books such as the "Tales of Times Now Past", Seimei was the child born of his father, Abe-no-Yasuna, and the incarnation of a white fox named Kuzunoha. Seimei's abilities were so great that when he was a child, he witnessed the form of an oni that no ordinary person could see, and the onmyouji Kamo-no-Tadayuki, amazed by his abilities, trained him in all aspects of Onmyoudou.
It is also said that Seimei had shikigami known as the twelve divine generals, which he was able to use at will, that reside under the Ichijou-modoribashi Bridge in Kyoto.
One day, a passing monk asked Seimei if it was possible to kill a man with a shikigami. Seimei was reluctant to use such a power, but he picked some grass nearby and put a shikigami in it, killing a frog that was standing there.
On another occasion, the distinguished onmyouji Ashiya Douman heard a rumor about Seimei and asked him for a contest of strength.
Douman turned a stone into a bird and Seimei turned it back into a stone, then Seimei made water spring up from the yard, which Douman made disappear. It seemed like their strength was an equal match, but during a trial to divine the contents of a box, Douman should have successfully divined the contents, but Seimei instantly transformed them into rats. Douman, amazed by such power, was said to have become Seimei's pupil.
Other legends that demonstrate Seimei's great ability include the story of how he discerned that two children brought by a monk who came to compare strength were shikigami, inferred the monk's intentions, and hid them through magic, and how he detected a curse by a shikigami sent to the Kuroudo-no-shoushou (Rough TL: Chamberlain's major general)[check ending TL note] and exorcised the shikigami back to its owner, causing the onmyouji's death. Countless legends show the greatness of Seimei's abilities.
However, the actual historical record of Abe-no-Seimei does not contain any such mystical legends. He succeeded to the posts of Daizen-no-daibu (Master of the Palace Table), Sakyou-no-daibu (Master of the Left Capital), and Harima-no-kami (Director of Harima), and in the prime of his life, as an Onmyou expert, he performed blessings and prayers, fortune-telling, and astronomical observations, and later received the court rank of junior fourth lesser as the Onmyou-no-kami (Director of Onmyou) of the Bureau of Onmyou. His actual character is a complete mystery.
However, his talent as an onmyouji was still outstanding, and it is said that Kamo-no-Tadayuki's son, Yasunori, recognized Seimei's power and transmitted the study of the calendar to his son, Kamo-no-Mitsuyoshi, and the study of astrology to Seimei, creating the monopoly of the Onmyouji profession by the Kamo and Abe clans from then on.
Even today, Abe no Seimei is revered as an exceptional onmyouji, and there are many shrines associated with him in various places, including the Seimei Shrine in Kyoto, the Abe no Seimei Shrine in Abeno, Osaka, where he is said to have been born, and the Seimei Shrine in Ibaraki Prefecture.
[All five untranslated titles come from the obsolete Ritsuryou system. It's immensely complex, so I'll just explain the parts I can to the best of my ability.
Kuroudo-no-shoushou refers specifically to a major general that serves as a secretary of the Chamberlain, who manages imperial edicts.
Daizen-no-daibu refers to the person in charge of the agency that prepared the court nobles' meals.
Sakyou-no-daibu refers to the person in charge of the agency that dealt with justice, governance, and police within the capital, they specifically were in charge of the left of the capital.
Harima-no-kami simply refers to the person in charge of the administration of the province of Harima, the same fundamental applies to other titles with "-no-kami".]
No comments:
Post a Comment