Note: I wrote this as the synthesis essay for my final research project in RELST 165 Japanese Religions at Allegheny College in spring 2022. The full project also included an annotated bibliography; those sources are listed at the end. Lightly formatted for the web, otherwise as submitted.
As someone born in the year of the horse according to the Chinese zodiac, I find it fascinating that if I were born just twelve years later, I would be considered an “unlucky” sign. The Chinese zodiac is broken up into twelve signs cycling through one at a time changing each new year (Alston). Additionally, each sign is assigned one of five elements which will change every full cycle of the zodiac signs, every twelve years (Alston). Overall, the complete cycle of element-sign combinations takes sixty years to complete.
From China to Japan
Like many other religious traditions in Japan, the Chinese zodiac originated in China and traveled to Japan. In addition to the Zodiac calendar, Japan also received their fair share of the major superstitions that come along with it. Some are more positive superstitions that involve placing little statues of the zodiac animals around during their corresponding year for good luck (Daniels). However, one infamous superstition is that of hinoeuma, a belief that ties women born in the year of the fire-horse will make terrible wives and bring misfortune to their husbands and even fathers (Drixler 152). Hinoeuma originated in the thirteenth century in China when scholar, Chai Wang, compiled all the misfortune that occurred in the years of the fire-horse and fire-sheep (Drixler 152). This compilation inevitably drew the connection between misfortune and these zodiac signs and acted as a catalyst for later beliefs. The earliest record of the hinoeuma superstition in Japan is from 1662 during the Edo period (Tanaka 21; Drixler 152). After some time, in Japan, this superstition was ignited by pop culture. One example is the story of Yaoya-Oshichi, a woman born in the year of the fire-horse who burned down the city of Edo and brought great misfortune to her husband (Bruckner 587). Over the years theaters popularized the story and hence the superstition (Bruckner 587).
After this point, hinoeuma was a common superstition in Japan. This resulted in the idea that husbands would avoid women born in the year of the fire-horse hence they were at a severe disadvantage to getting married (Shimizutani 1174). Even more apparent was that parents also avoided having children in years of the fire-horse just to avoid having a child with such a stigmatized sign.
The 1966 Fire-Horse Year
There is a large amount of information on the most recent year of the fire-horse, 1966, and by the data, the hinoeuma superstition is extremely apparent. The birth rate in Japan dropped significantly in 1966, between 21 and 24% (Rohlfs 83). Some believe that the numbers for the drop in birthrate are linked to people inaccurately reporting a child’s birth, out of fear they will face discrimination (Grech 133). Around 11,000 female births in 1966 were purposefully recorded as either 1965 or 1967 (Grech 134). Sadly, even when parents did have their children that year there is evidence that they were more likely to be neglected (Bruckner 586). Some psychologists believe this is tied to the parental investment theory (Bruckner 586). The parental investment theory states that parents are less likely to invest their time into children that they believe will be unsuccessful at making offspring of their own (Bruckner 587). The belief that fire-horse women are bad wives has been a detriment to their ability to get married and that would mean that they are less likely to create families of their own.
Lasting Disadvantages
In addition to difficulty getting married, women born in the year of the fire-horse face other disadvantages in education, economically, and a higher divorce rate. From a study of Japanese women born in the 1966 year of the fire horse, they found that there are significantly fewer women that went on to pursue higher education, 2 year or technical degree, than their surrounding cohorts (Shimizutani 1176). Another observation is that the gross income for women born in the year of the fire horse is significantly lower (Shimizutani 1177). This may be correlated with the lower education level or other factors, but the distinction between fire horse women and the women from surrounding zodiac signs is evidence that there may be some inherent bias against fire horse women that continues to impact women. Additionally, part of the superstition is that fire-horse women are more likely to get divorced and the actual divorce rate for women born in the year of the fire-horse is 1.3% higher than any of the surrounding cohort of women (Shimizutani 1175).
Will the Superstition Survive?
One fascinating aspect of the hinoeuma superstition is that it may go extinct under the right circumstances. Research shows that if the superstition is passed down from the father the belief will eventually die out (Tanaka 24). On the other hand, when the superstition is passed down from the mother the concept of hinoeuma will continue to exist indefinitely (Tanaka 21). This demonstrates the ties superstition has to parental relationships and how beliefs are more or less likely to be passed down based on how it was taught.
The next year of the fire-horse will be coming up soon, in 2026. It will be interesting to watch the public reaction and see if this centuries-old superstition will drastically affect Japanese society once more.
Sources
- Alston, Isabella, and Kathryn Dixon. Chinese Zodiac. TAJ Books International LLC, Charlotte, North Carolina, 2014.
- Bruckner, Tim A., Meenakshi Subbaraman, and Ralph A. Catalano. "Transient Cultural Influences on Infant Mortality: Fire-Horse Daughters in Japan." American Journal of Human Biology, vol. 23, no. 5, 2011, pp. 586-591.
- Daniels, Inge M. "Scooping, Raking, Beckoning Luck: Luck, Agency and the Interdependence of People and Things in Japan." The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 9, no. 4, 2003, pp. 619-638.
- Drixler, Fabian. Mabiki: Infanticide and Population Growth in Eastern Japan, 1660-1950, University of California Press, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/allegheny-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1184539, pp. 152-154.
- Grech, Victor. "The Japanese Male: Female Birth Ratio Rose in the 1966 Fire-Horse Year due to Female Birth Year Misrepresentation." Early Human Development, vol. 103, 2016, pp. 133-135.
- Tanaka, Cinthia Marie, and Yoh Iwasa, Cultural evolution of a belief controlling human mate choice: Dynamic modeling of the hinoeuma superstition in Japan, Journal of Theoretical Biology, Volume 309, 2012, Pages 20-28, ISSN 0022-5193, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2012.06.001. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022519312002780)
- Rohlfs, Chris, Alexander Reed, and Hiroyuki Yamada. "Causal Effects of Sex Preference on Sex-Blind and Sex-Selective Child Avoidance and Substitution Across Birth Years: Evidence from the Japanese Year of the Fire Horse." Journal of Development Economics, vol. 92, no. 1, 2010, pp. 82-95.
- Shimizutani, Satoshi, and Hiroyuki Yamada. "Long-Term Consequences of Birth in an 'Unlucky' Year: Evidence from Japanese Women Born in 1966." Applied Economics Letters, vol. 21, no. 16, 2014, pp. 1174-1178.