# Fire Horse > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Fire_Horse > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Fire_Horse.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Horse > Source revision: 1357052944 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Forty-third element of the sexagenary cycle}} {{Sexagenary cycle}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2025}} thumb|450px|Japanese birth and death rates since 1950. The drop in 1966 was due to it being a {{Transliteration|ja|hinoe-uma}} year.{{cite news |id={{ProQuest|110840956}} |authorlink1=Clyde Haberman |last1=Haberman |first1=Clyde |date=15 January 1987 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/15/world/japan-s-zodiac-66-was-a-very-odd-year.html |title=Japan's Zodiac: '66 was a very odd year |work=The New York Times |accessdate=21 October 2015 }} The '''fire horse''' {{Nihongo|2=丙午 (ひのえうま)|lead=yes|4='''''hinoe-uma''''', or へいご, ''heigo''}} or '''bing wu''' ({{Lang-zh|c=丙午|p=bǐngwǔ}}) or '''Bính Ngọ''' is the 43rd combination of the [sexagenary cycle](/source/sexagenary_cycle). It is said that birthrates in Japan tend to see a sharp decline in hinoe-uma years.{{cite journal |last1=Kaku |first1=Kanae |title=Increased induced abortion rate in 1966, an aspect of a Japanese folk superstition |journal=Annals of Human Biology |date=April 1975 |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=111–115 |doi=10.1080/03014467500000651 |pmid=1052742 }} == Years == {| class="wikitable" |+Associated years |- !1st [millennium](/source/millennium)!!2nd millennium!!3rd millennium |- | *46 *106 *166 *226 *286 *346 *406 *466 *526 *586 *646 *706 *766 *826 *886 *946 | *1006 *1066 *1126 *1186 *1246 *1306 *1366 *1426 *1486 *1546 *1606 *1666 *1726 *1786 *1846 *1906 *1966 | *2026 *2086 *2146 *2206 *2266 *2326 *2386 *2446 *2506 *2566 *2626 *2686 *2746 *2806 *2866 *2926 *2986 |} == Superstition == === Origin === There is a superstition that "a woman born in the year of the fire horse has a strong temperament, shortens her husband's life and bring ruin to their families and maybe even kill their husbands." It is said that the superstition in the early Edo period that "there are many fires in the year of the fire horse", changed to a superstition about women's marriage because [Yaoya Oshichi](/source/Yaoya_Oshichi) was believed to have been born during the fire horse.{{Cite web |url=http://doraku.asahi.com/earth/showashi/120118_02.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304191107/http://doraku.asahi.com/earth/showashi/120118_02.html |archive-date=4 March 2016 |access-date=11 March 2022 |website= |title=［どらく］ – 朝日新聞がビートルズ世代に贈る、こだわりエンターテインメントサイト }}{{Cite web |title=東京消防庁＜消防マメ知識＞＜消防雑学事典＞ |url=https://www.tfd.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/libr/qa/qa_35.htm |access-date=11 March 2022 |website=www.tfd.metro.tokyo.lg.jp}} In the Edo period, all human ages were counted using [East Asian age reckoning](/source/East_Asian_age_reckoning),{{Cite web |date=19 August 2012 |title=2007年│過去の展示一覧│江戸東京たてもの園 |url=https://www.tatemonoen.jp/special/past_2007.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120819121810/https://www.tatemonoen.jp/special/past_2007.html |archive-date=19 August 2012 |access-date=11 March 2022 |website=}} and if Yaoya Oshichi was born during the fire horse in 1666, then she would have been 18 years old in 1683 when she was burned at the stake. However in various biographies, such as that of [Ihara Saikaku](/source/Ihara_Saikaku), she is 16 years old.井原西鶴 原著、吉行淳之介 現代語訳『好色五人女』河出書房新社、1979年、pp.66–86サライ責任編集『十代目桂文治』昭和の名人完結編、小学館、2011年、pp.11–12および付属CD「八百屋お七」 {{Interlanguage link|Ki no Kaion|ja|紀海音}}, in his [jōruri](/source/J%C5%8Druri_(music)) ''Yaoya Oshichi'', placed Oshichi's birth as during the fire horse, which influenced the jōruri {{Nihongo|''Junshoku Edo Murasaki''|潤色江戸紫|lead=yes}} by {{Nihongo|Tamenaga Tarobei|為長太郎兵衛|lead=yes}} et al. to say the same. {{Interlanguage link|Baba Bunkō|ja|馬場文耕}} in his work {{Nihongo|''Kinsei Kōto Chobunshū''|近世江都著聞集|lead=yes}} states that Yaoya Oshichi being 11 years old when she hung a plaque at [Tennō-ji](/source/Tenn%C5%8D-ji_(Tait%C5%8D)) in 1676 was the basis for assigning her birth year to 1666. Ki no Kaion had a strong influence on the theatrical world, and the story in Bunkō's ''Kinsei Kōto Chobunshū'' has long been considered a true story, although it has been denied in modern times.竹野 静男「西鶴-海音の遺産　八百屋お七物の展開」『日本文学』vol.32、日本文学協会編集刊行、1983年、p.11 === Births in 1906 === This superstition continued even into the [Meiji era](/source/Meiji_(era)), and in 1906 the number of births decreased by about 4% from the previous year. In some cases, the births of boys were reported to have been shifted to the year before or after they were actually born.{{cite journal |last1=高橋 |first1=眞一 |title=明治 : 大正期における地域人口の自然増加と移動の関連性 |trans-title=The Relationship between Natural Growth of Population and Migration by Region in the Early Twentieth Century in Japan |language=ja |journal=国民経済雑誌 |trans-journal=National Economic Journal |date=April 2003 |volume=187 |issue=4 |pages=31–44 |doi=10.24546/00055847 |hdl=20.500.14094/00055847 |doi-access=free |hdl-access=free }} Around 1924, when women born in 1906 were of marriageable age, there was a series of stories denying the superstition and reports of suicides of women whose marriage proposals were broken off, suggesting that the superstition of fire horse births affected women's marriages.{{Efn|An example from the press "Girls turning 19 this year, troubled by superstitions; caught up in the distantly related 'fire horse' superstition", Asahi Shimbun, 10 February 1924 Morning Edition (in Japanese).|name=}} In his novel {{Interlanguage link|Gubijinzō|lt=''Gubijinzō''|ja|虞美人草}} published in 1907, [Natsume Soseki](/source/Natsume_S%C5%8Dseki) describes Fujio, an evil woman who deceives the main character, as being "a fire horse".{{Cite book |url=https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000148/card761.html |title=虞美人草 (夏目 漱石) |language=ja}} The novelist [Ango Sakaguchi](/source/Ango_Sakaguchi), who was born in this year, was given the name {{Nihongo|Heigo|炳五}}, which means {{Nihongo|fire horse|丙午 (へいご)|heigo}}, and left a story in his writings about how he was told by relatives that it was "lucky he was born a man". Sakaguchi predicted that this superstition would not go away, which would turn out to be the case in 1966.{{Cite web |last=坂口安吾 |title=坂口安吾 ヒノエウマの話 |url=https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/001095/files/42961_31184.html |access-date=11 March 2022 |website=www.aozora.gr.jp |language=ja}} === Births in 1966 === This superstition remained strong in the [Shōwa era](/source/Sh%C5%8Dwa_(1926%E2%80%931989)), and the birth rate in 1966 dropped 25% from the previous year.{{cite journal |author1=赤林 英夫 |title=丙午世代のその後―統計から分かること |trans-title=What happened to the Hei-go generation after that? What the statistics tell us |language=ja |journal=日本労働研究雑誌 |trans-journal=Japan Labor Research Journal |volume= |issue=569 |date=December 2007 |pages=17–28 |url=https://www.jil.go.jp/institute/zassi/backnumber/2007/12/pdf/017-028.pdf }} Many couples avoided having children or had abortions, especially in rural and regional areas{{Efn|Statistics also reported a high number of abortions. "Abortion in Japan is Unusually High," Asahi Shimbun, 22 August 1966, Evening Edition (in Japanese).|name=b}} and the number of births was extremely low compared to other years, with only 1,360,974 births.内閣府『青少年白書』平成18年版 On the other hand, the number of births between the previous year and the following year increased. Since there were fewer children born in 1966, it was often discussed at the time whether it was easier to take high school and college entrance examinations in this school year (the population including early-borns in 1967 was about 1.6 million{{Cite web| title=18歳人口と高等教育機関への進学率等の推移 | language=ja | trans-title=Trends in the 18-year-old population and the rate of enrollment in higher education institutions | url=https://www8.cao.go.jp/cstp/tyousakai/kihon5/1kai/siryo6-2-7.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151010072818/http://www8.cao.go.jp:80/cstp/tyousakai/kihon5/1kai/siryo6-2-7.pdf | archive-date=2015-10-10}}) than in other years, but there was no significant difference in the general college entrance rate. While no such increase was seen, the rate of entry into public universities increased in 1985. Additionally, in 1985 the first child rate was 50.9%, the highest ever in statistical history. {{cn|date=July 2024}} On the other hand, Japanese local governments took the following actions against fire horse superstitions: In November 1965, the Yamagata District Legal Affairs Bureau of the [Ministry of Justice](/source/Ministry_of_Justice_(Japan)) sponsored the "Fire Horse Banishment Campaign" in [Yamagata City](/source/Yamagata%2C_Yamagata), and on the 21st of the same month, a parade was held in the city to raise awareness of the issue. According to the Legal Affairs Bureau, this was due to a number of consultations regarding the issue of childbearing, which led to divorce settlements and harassment from neighbors.[Kahoku Shimpō](/source/Kahoku_Shimp%C5%8D) November 1965 A similar movement was also underway in [Kasukawa-mura](/source/Kasukawa%2C_Gunma) in [Gunma Prefecture](/source/Gunma_Prefecture) (now Kasukawa-cho, [Maebashi](/source/Maebashi)), led by the village mayor, who declared it a "village of banishment of superstition". The village office conducted a survey of 1,400 women born in 1906 and the years before and after, and worked to publicize the fact that fire horse superstitions have no basis.{{Cite web |date=23 January 2012 |title=Vol.78 ひのえうま 「迷信の追放」に挑んだ村 昭和41年（1/2）- 昭和史再訪セレクション – 地球発 – [どらく] |url=http://doraku.asahi.com/earth/showashi/120118.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120123162859/http://doraku.asahi.com/earth/showashi/120118.html |archive-date=23 January 2012 |access-date=11 March 2022 |website=}} The city of [Kurume](/source/Kurume) in [Fukuoka Prefecture](/source/Fukuoka_Prefecture) strongly rejected fire horse beliefs in its public relations paper, calling it "a fairy tale from once upon a time", "a truly strange custom most unbecoming of a scientific Japan, which last year produced its [second Nobel Prize winner](/source/Shin'ichir%C5%8D_Tomonaga)", and "of the world of fairy tales".「暮らしのしおり」 久留米市役所『市政くるめ』第188号 1966年1月5日 === Births in 2026 === The next year of the fire horse is 2026. The [World Bank](/source/World_Bank) has speculated that the trend of lower birth rates in Japan during a fire horse year will not continue in 2026.{{cite web |last1=Suzuki |first1=Emi |last2=Kashiwase |first2=Haruna |title=The curse of the Fire-Horse: How superstition impacted fertility rates in Japan |url=https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/opendata/curse-fire-horse-how-superstition-impacted-fertility-rates-japan |work=World Bank Blogs |date=22 January 2019 }}{{self-published inline|date=February 2026}} ==Footnotes== === References === {{Reflist}} === Annotations === {{Notelist}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Hinoe uma}} Category:Chinese astrology Category:Superstitions of Japan Category:Sexagenary cycle --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Fire Horse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Horse) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Horse?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.