日本の迷信 (Nihon no Meishin) – Japanese Superstition No.4

12th March – 弥生

茶柱が立つと、幸運が訪れる

If there is a tea leaf stem standing in the tea, happiness will come to you

In Japan, having 柱 (Hashira = pillar) has meaning of good luck, so people used to believe making Hashira brings happiness to the house.

Also when counting Buddha and god, Japanese count as 1体, 2体…(体 -Tai) and it is the same was as counting pillars. Therefore, pillar is considered as good luck item.

The origin of this superstition was made by the tea retailer, normally the tea leaves which were picked first have the best tea taste, so people buy them a lot. Then the second tea season, those leaves was not sold as many as the first. The second picked tea leaves usually have the stems in it, so the retailer made up this story as their part of marketing plan. From that time, this second picked tea has sold pretty well too!

耳たぶが大きいと、お金持ちになる

If you have big earlobes, you will be rich

The big earlobe is called 福耳 (Fukumimi) in Japanese. Many of the Japanese gods and Buddha have this type of earlobes, therefore people still believe this.

朝に蜘蛛を見ると、幸せになる

If you see a spider in the morning, you will have a good luck

Morning time is considered as good luck as the sun brings energy. Also spider is believed as the God and ancestor’s servant in Japan. Spider will bring the message from god or ancestor so it is better not to kill them!

トイレを綺麗にすると、美人が生まれる

If you clean the bathroom well, beautiful child will be born in the family.

This associated with the fact that the sewage from toilet used to run down to the river and it went to the ocean at the end. In the old time, it was believed that in the ocean there was a god who protects house and also brings birth to the family. So maintaining the bathroom clean will make this god happy and might bring the beautiful baby.

手の冷たい人は、心が温かい人

The person who has cold hand, has warm mind

This is not scientifically true, but people believe that those cold-handed people help others so much, so that their hand got cold.

ワカメや昆布を食べると、髪の毛が増える

Eating seaweed will grow your hair

This is also not scientifically true, people thought so as seaweed looks like hair. I’m fact, seaweed is good for health and can make the quality of hair good.