Facing Your Pillow to the North Will Shorten Your Life
Superstitions across the the world manifest in all aspects of a societies culture. One such example is from religion and Japanese superstitions are no exception. It’s believed in Japan that you shouldn’t sleep with your pillow, i.e. head, to the north. This comes from funeral rites in Buddhism where the deceased is laid with their head facing northward. It’s believed doing this yourself while sleeping will cause bad luck and potentially shorten your life.
Sneezing Means Someone Is Talking About You
If someone sneezes this means that someone else is talking about that person. Some Japanese superstitions expand beyond Japan’s borders like this one, which is actually also a superstition in Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese culture. In Japan it’s commonly used in anime and manga. A more specific version is that one sneeze means someone is talking about that person, two means someone is saying something bad about them, and three times means someone has fallen in love with that person.
Japanese Superstition Whistling at Night Will Attract Snakes
You shouldn’t whistle at night because you’ll attract snakes or supernatural monsters (yokai). The snakes in this particular superstition are most likely a reference to thieves. It’s believed that whistling was a way of communicating for criminals and if you do it at night you might attract unwanted attention. Nowadays, some people believe the idiom is more used to encourage people to be quiet so they don’t disturb others in their homes at night.
A Standing Tea Leaf Stalk Is Good Luck
In Japanese culture, finding the stalk of a tea leaf standing upright in your tea is considered good luck. The reason is simply that it’s a very rare thing to happen, kind of like finding a four leaf clover. So if you’re lucky enough for this rare event to occur, then you must have good luck in general.
Unlucky Numbers: Four and Nine
In many Japanese superstitions, it comes down to reading of different kanji being same and the following is one such example. There are two ways to read the kanji for 4 (四), yon and shi. The kanji for death (死) is also read as shi, which leads to the superstition of 4 being unlucky as it reminds people of death. Don’t be surprised if the number 4 isn’t included, such as in a hotel room. The same can be said, although to a lesser extent, for the number 9 (九). 9 can sometimes be read as ku, which shares a pronunciation with the kanji for suffering or anguish (苦).
Cover Your Bellybutton When It Thunders
Almost every child in Japan has been told by an adult to “cover your belly button or the Thunder god will eat it” at some point or another. The thunder god is named Raijin, or Kaminari-sama, and he has a thunder beast associated with him called Raiju. The Raiju is known to like sleeping in people’s navels for some reason or another. When the Kaminari–sama wants to wake up the sleeping Raiju he will shoot a lighting arrow at him, which has the side effect of striking the individual whose naval the Raiju was sleeping in. Hence the need to hide one’s belly button when thunder starts to rumble. It’s thought today that the myth is meant to be a good way to make sure kids stay bundled up and warm, particularly during thunderstorms.
Don’t Hang Laundry to Dry Outside Overnight
This superstition isn’t as well known as it used to be, but in the past it was known that leaving wet laundry to dry overnight was a bad idea. This is because the possessions of the deceased, including clothes, were thought to attract the spirits of their previous owners. Clothing that belonged to a family member previously, which was more likely in the past with clothing like kimono being handed down, might attract their lingering spirit if left out over night.
Cover Your Thumbs When a Hearse Passes
Another superstition that comes from wordplay, is that if you see a hearse pass by, then you should cover your thumbs. Why thumbs? Because the kanji for thumb is 親指 (oyayubi), which literally means “parent finger”. Thus, in order to protect your parents from an early death you should cover thumbs from death, i.e. a hearse.
Don’t Kill Spiders in the Morning, but Do at Night
One of the common Japanese superstitions you’ll hear is “Let spiders live in the morning, but kill them during the night time”. The idea is that it is good luck to see a spider in the morning and they should be thought of as a guest. However, at night you should always kill a spider because they are seen as bad luck, like a thief or demon.
Rain, Rain Go Away – Teru Teru Bozu
Teru teru bozu meaning “shine” “shine” “Buddhist priest”, are little dolls hung up to bring good weather and stop or preemptively prevent rain. The dolls are handmade from either white cloth or paper and then hung up on the window with string. Originally believed to be started as charms hung by farmers, they were adopted by children and their parents in the Edo period. Even after all this time, they are still common to see around today. However, not everyone always wants sunny weather. Hanging them upside down is said to bring rain instead.
Don’t Clip Your Fingernails at Night
This superstition states that “If you cut your fingernails after sunset, then you won’t be at your parent’s death bed”. The reasoning on why? Well it’s another one of those Japanese superstitions that come from wordplay. The phrase for cutting your nails at night is yozume (夜爪 lit. “night nail”). This is the pronounced the same as the phrase yozume (世詰), which means to “shorten one’s life”. 世詰 is technically the shortened version of the phrase 世を詰める or yo wo tsumeru. So the reason you won’t be at your parent’s death bed if you cut your nail as night is because it will shorten your life and you’ll pass away before them.
Japanese Superstition Breaking a Comb Is Bad Luck
Breaking a comb is thought to be bad luck in Japan. The thought is likened to breaking a mirror bringing bad luck in Western culture. The superstition may have arose from an old myth about a god called Izanagi no Mikoto. Izanagi chased his beloved wife Izanami into the realm of the dead after she passed away in childbirth. Long story short Izanagi used his comb multiple times in wild and interesting ways to save himself. So make sure to keep a comb handy and don’t break it because you might need it to save yourself one day.
