Geomancy

FC 84, March 6, 2006

Geomancy (Feng Shui)

• Handout from Village Japan

• Beliefs in directionality as a means of divining and (perhaps affecting) the interaction of the physical (and metaphysical world) on human affairs

• Underpinnings are Chinese T’aoistthinking about nature and metaphysics

Geomancy/Cosmology

North = black, kame (turtle)East = blue, ryu (dragon)South = red, byoo (phoenix)West = white, tora (tiger)

In Edo context, Mt. Tsukuba is the black turtleSumida River is the blue dragon

Earliest known map of Edo, 1632

Cosmology

• Reproduced (inverted) in Sumo rings• In cosmology ground is square and

heaven is round; • in sumo the ring is round and roof is

square,

the colored tassles are red, white, blue, black