Cultural Notes
Katatagae
Mythology & Folklore
In Japanese the concept of 方違え (katatagae) deals with changing directions in order to avoid bad luck. This deals with things like setting off for a journey prior to the planned night to avoid an unfavorable day, or traveling to a location by an unusual route to avoid an unfavorable direction (方塞がり/katabutagari) or even avoiding going from work to your home and instead staying elsewhere until the direction home becomes favorable again. It also deals with days to avoid house renovations and building and other construction projects (including locations and days to begin or cease work) with directions based on the center of the home (so renovating in the northeast part of your home might be auspicious or negative depending on the day).
The onmyodo job of calendar development was concerned with charting the various directions that certain onmyodo-affiliated gods were said to be traveling in or resting at during certain days as it was considered necessary not to walk in the direction of these gods or incur their wraith.
Kojin (金神), the god of metal, is one deity that was to be avoided and was said to be particularly powerful when he occupied the northeast or the southwest (these directions were known as Ushitora and Hitsujisaru). Another god, Teichijin (天一神), also known as Nakagami (中神) is a god of fortune in onmyodo who descends to the northeast on the 46th day of the sexagenary cycle and completes a clockwise circuit, spending five days on each cardinal point and six days on each ordinal point, returning to heaven from the north on the 30th day of the next sexagenary cycle. Travelling in the direction of Ten'ichijin is considered unlucky and must be avoided.
Taihaku (太白), Daishogun (大将軍), Taihaku (太白), The King and the Minister (王相) are the others that must be taken into account when dealing with katatagae.
Relevance to MAO
In chapter 129 Mao talks about some of the aspects of onmyodo that have not been focused on in the series, namely the influence of auspicious directions and the role of the onmyoji in determining favorable directional configurations. Mao discusses the incorrect renovation and sealing of a ground water well that allowed an ayakashi to take residence within and grow powerful. Mao states that the correct directions were likely not taken into consideration during this process when the well was sealed.