#The Golden Age of Onmyodo

Contents

Fiction-Only + Reference Only. This document gives an overview of the two streams of Heian Onmyodo. Additional Sorcery data is placed separately in fc04-05-03-onmyodo-seimei.md (Seimei school) and fc04-05-04-onmyodo-doman.md (Doman school). This document has no stat sheet or spell values.

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#Opening Fragment — The Star-Board of Dawn

The onmyoji looked at the stars reflected in the water bowl. It was a night on which the stars in the water were clearer than those in the actual sky. The attendant thought this was ill-omened, but did not say so aloud.

"Shall I block the entrance?" the attendant asked.

The onmyoji shook his head. "We do not block the gate. We change the time at which the gate opens."

He laid a finger on the star-board and counted off the directions. The energy of the east was thin, and the shadow of the north was long. "Before the fourth drum of dawn, let no one open the folding screen. After that, they may open it. By then the guest's time to return will already have come."

"Did you say a guest?"

"In the Onmyodo of Heian, even the uninvited are seen off with all due courtesy." The onmyoji folded the talisman. "Push it out by force and the gate breaks. Bind the time, and it recalls of its own the moment it ought to leave."

That night, it appeared as though nothing had happened. Yet the next day, a single wet footprint was found behind the folding screen.

#Scent — The One Who Reads the Stars, The One Who Binds Time

Three o'clock at dawn. A certain estate in the east of the capital. An onmyoji looks at the stars and looks at the time. In which direction the constellations turn, which hour of the 12 branches (支) it is, which seat of the 64 hexagrams (卦) — once all of these are fixed, he chants a single mantra.

At the same hour, a secluded dwelling in the west of the capital. A different onmyoji whispers a single human name to one face-bearing insect. The insect, hearing that name, makes for a certain bedchamber. Before dawn comes, the bearer of that name does not wake on the third breath.

It is the same learning. Onmyodo (陰陽道). It was an age in which orthodoxy and heterodoxy used the same tools in two directions.

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#This Document's Position

This document is a historical and cultural overview of Onmyodo. It treats two things.

1. What Onmyodo is — the fusion of Taoism, Shinto, and Esoteric Buddhism
2. The two streams — the difference between the Seimei school (orthodox) and the Doman school (heterodox)

Detailed additional Sorcery (1-dan to 10-dan spells) is in the Chapter 5 mechanics documents. This document has no stat sheet.

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#Onmyodo — Taoism + Shinto + Esoteric Buddhism

Onmyodo (陰陽道) is not a single source but the fusion of three streams.

#Taoist Yin-Yang and the Five Elements

The Yin-Yang and Five-Elements thought that entered from Chinese Taoism is its framework. A cosmology in which the world is made of the two principles of yin (陰) and yang (陽), and the five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, water) hold relations to one another. Constellations, time, and direction are all read through this system.

#Japanese Shinto

The native faith of Japan — the 8 million gods and natural spirituality — was overlaid upon the Yin-Yang and Five Elements. The names of the gods the onmyoji calls are not those of Taoism but the gods of Shinto. The form of the Barrier, too, follows the rites of the shrine.

#Esoteric Buddhism (密教)

The Tendai/Shingon-lineage Esoteric Buddhism that developed from the early 9th century onward, after Saicho and Kukai, fused with Onmyodo. The techniques of the mantra (眞言), the mudra (印契), and the mandala (曼荼羅) became the tools of the onmyoji.

The three streams combined to become the Onmyodo of Heian. Taoist cosmology + Shinto divinities + Esoteric Buddhist mantra = the learning of the onmyoji.

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#The Peak — The Onmyoryo (陰陽寮)

In the Heian period, Onmyodo became established as a state institution. The name of that institution is the Onmyoryo (陰陽寮). Divination, calendar-making, timekeeping, and rites were all the duties of the Onmyoryo.

As the Fujiwara house seized control of politics, the onmyoji became their close confidants. Seimei entering to purify the darkness that lodged in Michinaga's bedchamber is a scene of this period. That the onmyoji stood at the core of politics is the most distinct characteristic of Heian Onmyodo.

In the later Muromachi, Sengoku, and Edo periods, the political influence of Onmyodo vanishes. Heian alone was the age of the onmyoji.

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#The Two Streams

#The Seimei School (光道)

The orthodox Onmyodo with Abe no Seimei (安倍晴明, 921~1005) at its peak.

For the figure in detail: fc04-03-01-seimei.md. For additional Sorcery: fc04-05-03-onmyodo-seimei.md.

#The Doman School (異道)

The heterodox Onmyodo represented by Ashiya Doman (蘆屋道満).

For additional Sorcery in detail: fc04-05-04-onmyodo-doman.md.

#The Relationship of the Two Schools

In legend, Seimei and Doman are rivals. Both "the tale in which Seimei killed Doman" and "the tale in which Doman killed Seimei" exist, and both carry much later embellishment — which is the true one is not clear. In Yumemakura Baku's modern novel Onmyoji, too, the conflict of these two schools is a core motif.

This volume's treatment:

• Both schools are treated as real.
• Seimei school = the court's side. Orthodox.
• Doman school = unofficial. Heterodox. Frequently appears as an NPC villain.
• Direct-conflict tales are nightly tales — see the "to fight / to serve" entries in fc04-03-01 (Seimei).

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#The Onmyoji's Tools

#Shikigami (式神)

Small spirit bodies the onmyoji commands with talismans and dolls. Their own will is weak, and they obey the onmyoji's commands.

The legend of Seimei's 12 shikigami is the most famous depiction of a Heian onmyoji's tool. There is a transmission that even in daily life he kept one or two shikigami at his side as he traveled.

As game rules, the 1-dan technique "Shikigami Command" of the onmyoji class in co-04-07-04-onmyoji.md is the core, and the ex2 Yin-Yang 1-dan spell "Lesser Shikigami Summons (小式神招)" and the like also treat this tool.

#Barrier (結界)

An invisible wall that blocks the intrusion of yoma or protects a person's spiritual seat. Forms:

• Pentagram (五芒星) — a star shape. The balance of the five elements. The symbol of the Seimei school.
• Nine-Syllable Seal (九字決印) — the nine characters "Rin Pyo To Sha Kai Jin Retsu Zai Zen (臨兵闘者皆陣列在前)." A union of hands and mantra.
• Torii Type (鳥居型) — a form making the torii of a shrine's entrance into a small talisman.

#Astrology・Divination (占星・占卜)

A tool for asking the future.

• Constellations — the 28 lunar mansions (宿) · the 12 houses of the zodiac
• Seasons — the 12 solar terms
• The 12 branches (支) — time, direction, the fate of a person
• The 64 hexagrams (卦) — the divination of the I Ching

#Purification (祓・穢禊)

A rite for washing away impurity.

• Misogi (禊) — a rite of washing with water. River, sea, well.
• Harai (祓) — a rite of washing with talisman and mantra.

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#Game Application — Overview

This document is an overview. Detailed rules branch to the following documents.

#When Using co Alone

At a table without ex2, the co-04-07-04-onmyoji.md onmyoji class core suffices to run Onmyodo fully. The additional Sorcery of this volume (05-03・05-04) is a form layered on top of the ex2 Yin-Yang spell system, so at a table without ex2 it is not opened as an independent spell slot.

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#In One Line

"Looking at the same star, one binds time, and another kills a person."

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#References

#co — Class

• co-04-character/co-04-07-classes/co-04-07-04-onmyoji.md — the onmyoji class core

#ex2 — Yin-Yang Spell System (optional dependency)

• ex2-35-spell-system/ex2-35-03 (Yin-Yang 1-dan)
• ex2-35-spell-system/ex2-35-04 (Yin-Yang 3-dan)
• ex2-35-spell-system/ex2-35-05 (Yin-Yang 5-dan)
• ex2-35-spell-system/ex2-35-06 (Yin-Yang 7-dan)
• ex2-35-spell-system/ex2-35-07 (Yin-Yang 9-dan)
• ex2-35-spell-system/ex2-35-08 (Yin-Yang Tatsujin)
• ex2-35-spell-system/ex2-35-15-barrier-spells.md — Barrier
• ex2-35-spell-system/ex2-35-16-prophecy-spells.md — Prophecy・divination

The notation above follows the dan identification of the ex2 Sorcery spells.

#Within fc04

• fc04-03-01-seimei.md — the figure Seimei (the peak of the Seimei school)
• fc04-05-03-onmyodo-seimei.md — Seimei-school additional Sorcery
• fc04-05-04-onmyodo-doman.md — Doman-school additional Sorcery
• fc04-06-01-aristocratic.md — aristocratic scenario (onmyoji in action)

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The stars are far away, but their shadow descends to the very threshold of the bedchamber.