Abe no Seimei
Japanese · mortal · mid heian · Recorded classification
He was a real official of the Bureau of Yin and Yang with a documented career in calendrical astronomy and divination, and he is also the greatest magician in Japanese literature — the two facts are not in tension, because the job was the magic. The folklore makes him the son of a fox, which would make his most famous adversary a relative; the treatments consulted report that tradition without endorsing it and so does this record. His shrine in Kyoto is on the site of his house and is still busy.
Domains
- divination
- exorcism
Relations
- ally: Minamoto no YorimitsuReference treatment of Seimei working alongside Yorimitsu and the Four Guardian Kings. (secondary)
- enemy: Tamamo-no-MaeIn some accounts; others give the exposure to Abe no Yasunari, and the record says so on both sides.Reference treatment of the accounts in which Abe no Seimei detects Tamamo-no-Mae. (secondary)
Sources
- Abe no Seimei (921-1005) is the leading onmyōji of the mid-Heian period, who worked with Minamoto no Yorimitsu and his Shitennō against oni and yōkai and, in some accounts, exposed Tamamo-no-Mae.: Reference treatments of Abe no Seimei, onmyōdō and Tamamo-no-Mae. (secondary)