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Answerman - What Are Some Japanese Superstitions?


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Just Passing Through



Joined: 04 Apr 2011
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PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2018 11:13 am Reply with quote
That sneezing thing is a superstition in North India as well.
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Shiratori-san



Joined: 25 Mar 2014
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PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2018 11:58 am Reply with quote
My parents also said this one to me: play with fire and you'll wet your bed at night. Guess it's a thing here in Portugal as well.

"bathing your baby in urine will make them beautiful"
Oh, please, god, no.... don't, please, no don't, please, just don't do this.
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Key
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PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2018 11:59 am Reply with quote
Would getting wet from rain = getting sick count as a superstition? I know Japanese are far more obsessive about umbrella use than Americans are.
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TheOtakuX



Joined: 16 Jan 2014
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PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2018 12:45 pm Reply with quote
I've heard the sneezing thing in America before. Though I see it more in anime than in everyday life.
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mangamuscle



Joined: 23 Apr 2006
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PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2018 12:51 pm Reply with quote
Key wrote:
Would getting wet from rain = getting sick count as a superstition? I know Japanese are far more obsessive about umbrella use than Americans are.


I think it is quite probable you have lived most of your life in the midwest, where precipitation is scarce in comparison, Japan gets on average 1,668 mm of rain per year. The closest the USA gets is Hawaii with 1618 and in the continent Louisiana with 1528. California gets 563 and it is probably getting dryer each year.
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Zin5ki



Joined: 06 Jan 2008
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PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2018 1:03 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Big ears means you'll get rich.

Aha! More light has been shed on the appeal of Ebessan's gimmick.
I presume this accounts for the features of various local deities by the same token.
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LightningViper



Joined: 28 Oct 2016
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PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2018 1:07 pm Reply with quote
About that bathing baby in urine... it might be cause of urea, which is a compound usually found in urine and used in fertilizer, but also many today's skin-care products cause of its ability to re-hydrate the skin. Urine however is far from being as clean as something synthesized in laboratory, it is a body's way of getting rid of waste, so really not recommendable.
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Scalfin



Joined: 18 May 2008
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PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2018 1:31 pm Reply with quote
I can think of one especially harsh superstition that's maintained prominence despite not being believed because of its inclusion in the weekly liturgy:

Quote:
With what [wicks] may one light [Shabbat lamps], and with what [wicks] may one not light? One may not light with moss [that grows in] cedars, nor with uncombed flax, nor with raw silk, nor with willow bast, nor with desert fiber, nor with weeds [growing] on water. Nor [may one light] with pitch, nor with wax, nor with castor oil, nor oil set for burning [consecrated oil that has become impure], nor with [the fat from] sheeps' tails, nor with forbidden fat. Nachum HaMadi says: One may light with boiled forbidden fat; but the Sages say: One may not light with forbidden fat whether it's boiled or not boiled.
One may not light with oil set for burning on festivals. Rabbi Yishmael says: Out of respect for Shabbat, one may not light with tar, but the Sages permit all [of the following] oils: Sesame oil, nut oil, radish [seed] oil, fish oil, gourd [seed] oil, tar, and naphtha. Rabbi Tarfon says: One may only light olive oil.
Of tree products, one may light only with flax. Of tree products, only flax [fashioned into a] shelter can contract impurity [if it surrounds a corpse]. [If] a slip of cloth has been folded but not singed, Rabbi Eliezer says it is subject to impurity and one may not light with it. Rabbi Akiva says:It is not subject to impurity [literally: it is pure], and one may light with it.
One may not perforate an eggshell, and fill it with oil, and place it over the lamp, so that it [oil] drips [therein], even if it is [made] of earthenware, but Rabbi Yehudah permits it. But if the potter had originally joined it, it is permissible because it is one utensil. One may not fill a bowl [with] oil and place it beside the lamp, and put the end of the wick into it, so that it draws [the oil], but Rabbi Yehudah permits it.
[If] one extinguishes the lamp because he is afraid of non-Jews, of bandits, of an evil spirit, or that the sick may sleep, he is exempt; but [if his intention is] to preserve the lamp, to preserve the oil, or to preserve the wick, he is liable. Rabbi Yose exempts in all [these cases] except the [act preserving the wick], because he thereby creates a coal.
Women die in childbirth for three transgressions: If they are not careful with [the laws] of menstruation; and if they are not careful [to separate some] dough [when baking to give to the priest]; and if they are not careful with the lighting of the [Shabbat] lamp.
At dusk on the eve of shabbat, a man must make three statements: Have you separated the tithe? Have you prepared the Eruv? Light the lamps! If it is uncertain whether it is night [dark] or not, one may not tithe [produce that is] certainly untithed; and one may not immerse vessels [in a Mikveh]; and one may not light the lamps. One may [however] tithe Demai; and one may prepare the Eruv, and one may cover [pots] of hot food.


I would note that, at least according to the footnotes on my siddur, the entire purpose of this passage is to state disagreement with a second-temple-period sect that held the having, rather than just lighting, a flame was prohibited on shabbos. That also means that the tradition of lighting the candles is actually one of picking a side in a fight that's been settled for over two thousand years. This isn't even the oldest one, as the reason we salt our challah before thanking god for it is that the societies surrounding stone age Israel believed that salt made bread unsuitable for their (pagan) religious rites. I'm also pretty sure we boil our wine so the Catholics can't use it for mass, which I'm very sure is a false assumption.
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ultimatehaki



Joined: 27 Oct 2012
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PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2018 1:43 pm Reply with quote
...Those Kanji don't look remotely similar.
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EricJ2



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PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2018 1:46 pm Reply with quote
And also two of the other most common Japanese superstitions in anime:
1) If you get a small twig from the tea leaves in your green tea, and it floats vertically, that's good fortune.
2) If a mysterious accident seemingly happens on its own, such as glass breaking, or a picture falling down, it's an omen of something bad happening to someone close to you at that moment.

In one episode of Tenchi in Tokyo, Tenchi's dad is waiting at his son's big-city dorm while Tenchi faces the usual chaos. Dad muses over the good luck of a twig in his tea, when the twig suddenly sinks, the cup cracks, three desk pictures fall off the desk, the wall picture tips, and....his pants fall down.
Hmm, wonder if Tenchi's in trouble? Laughing

TheOtakuX wrote:
I've heard the sneezing thing in America before. Though I see it more in anime than in everyday life.


In the West, your ears "burn" hot if someone's talking about you, but the sneezing is pretty common to Eastern anime.

In one episode of Urusei Yatsura, Ran is sick in bed thinking back over the many times Lum came to her house when they were kids, which always ended up going wrong--"Curse you, Lum!!"
Cut to class, where Lum seems to be having an odd sneezing attack all day...Wonder if she's getting a cold?
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Key
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PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2018 2:57 pm Reply with quote
mangamuscle wrote:
Key wrote:
Would getting wet from rain = getting sick count as a superstition? I know Japanese are far more obsessive about umbrella use than Americans are.


I think it is quite probable you have lived most of your life in the midwest, where precipitation is scarce in comparison, Japan gets on average 1,668 mm of rain per year. The closest the USA gets is Hawaii with 1618 and in the continent Louisiana with 1528. California gets 563 and it is probably getting dryer each year.

Not sure what that has to do with the matter at hand, as I was talking about using umbrellas, not carrying them around. (And yes, the area where I grew up averages more around 1100 mm of rain per year.) I almost never see even fictional stories in the States about people getting feverish or even deathly ill just from being caught in the rain once, yet those are wide-spread in anime, and I've read forum accounts of Japanese marveling that foreigners would dare go out in even a mild rain without an umbrella.
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Tenebrae



Joined: 26 Apr 2008
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PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2018 3:28 pm Reply with quote
Local superstition regarding sneezing: first for something good, second for something bad, third for money. Actually rhymes in the language of origin.
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Dumas1



Joined: 20 Dec 2012
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PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2018 3:53 pm Reply with quote
ultimatehaki wrote:
...Those Kanji don't look remotely similar.


I think the writer meant to say that they sound very similar. Chinese also has the 4 = Death thing, so some buildings are missing a fourth or fourteenth floor the way that Western buildings sometimes skip 13.

In Chinese, 8 sounds a lot like a word for fortune or luck, so apparently license plates with 8s on them can go for quite a bit in China. It also sounds like a word for father, so August 8th is Father's Day in Taiwan (I'm not sure about the Mainland).
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mangamuscle



Joined: 23 Apr 2006
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PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2018 3:59 pm Reply with quote
Key wrote:
I almost never see even fictional stories in the States about people getting feverish or even deathly ill just from being caught in the rain once, yet those are wide-spread in anime, and I've read forum accounts of Japanese marveling that foreigners would dare go out in even a mild rain without an umbrella.


Since we are going from "getting sick" to "near dying" ...

Ever heard "A Single Death is a Tragedy; a Million Deaths is a Statistic"? Since 1 in 4 japanese are 65 or older and since the elderly are at higher risk of the flu (which is not to be underestimated), it makes sense that older people might preach (and younger people repeat ) the gospel of prevention, but I would not classify that as superstition, maybe erring on the side of caution.

Or it could be just about awareness (or lack of depending where you are).
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Compelled to Reply



Joined: 14 Jan 2017
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PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2018 4:00 pm Reply with quote
Outside the funeral tradition, who passes food from chopstick to chopstick? Isn't that rather tedious and unhygienic, akin to passing with knives and forks? Proper Japanese restaurants outside Japan usually provide tongs to transfer food.
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