Kimono Flea Market ICHIROYA's News Letter No.527

Next year is a year of the horse. We can see many uma(horse) design goods including new year greeting cards n this time of the year. People born in the year of the horse are said to be talkative, outgoding, and fun to be around. They get alog with people born in the year of the tiger....I am not trying to be  a fortune teller. You know Japanese are so superstitious, but not anymore, I think. Still these things appear in conversation for fun.

Among people born in uma doshi(a year of the horse), women born in a special year of uma doshi, it is called Hinoerma, must have been teased because of the legend.

Hinoeuma(literally means Fire Horse) year comes every sixtieth years and the last Hinoeuma year was 1966. The next Hinoerma year will be 2026.

The suserstition seems to have come from the legend of YaoyaOshichi. Oshichi is a woman's name who was said to be executed by her sin of arson in Edo period. She was an actual being, but not so much has been known and seems this incident has been dramatized with a lot of fiction. Many people know the story through the novels, Kabuki or Bunraku and also Ukiyoe piece. She was written as a mad and selfish arsonist but in paintings, she was a savior who rang the bell to let people know the fire. In any case Oshicih was known as an evil woman and related with fire. The scandal inspired so many artists and writers! You might have seen the image of Oshichi going up on a ladder wearing furisode!

It seems Hinoeuma legend was from Yaoya oshichi who was said to be born in 1666.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaoya_Oshichi

I have heard - women born in Hinoeuma can kill their husbands, or having a bad luck, you should keep secret if you were born in the year of Hinoeuma and so on. It is so rediculous!

However, the birth rate record shows, that the birth rate dropped by 27 % in 1966. This can be said to be mass histeria! The birth rate of both male and female were dropped, ( in that era, still gender selection was not possible)so, apparently, people avoided having children in that particular year for the fear of having babygirl. I was so sursprised and shocked to see this figure.

Next Hinoeuma year is 2026--I do not think the birthrate will change because of this superstition any more( I hope so!)but still people will be talking about women born in this particular year. It seems Hinoeuma is nothign to do with men, so more boys will be born? That will be hilarious.

I think it is a big joke-morning show on TV tells your fortune and `lucky color' of the day by your zodiac sign. This is true in Japan. I just cannot believe this is broadcasted but it seems people are just having fun with these personality assessment and today's luck and so on. There will be a lot of jokes and teasing about people born in umadoshi towards the new year.

Men born in umadoshi are called toshi-otoko and women are called toshi-onnna. 

We wish you a good luck for toshi-otoko and toshi- onnna all over the world and everyone for the coming new year!