Abe no Seimei was the most renowned onmyōji in Japanese history, a master of onmyōdō, the court discipline that bound together astronomy, the calendar, divination, and exorcism. He served the Heian imperial court across several reigns as its foremost diviner and reader of the heavens.
In his own lifetime he was a respected official whose readings of the stars and the calendar guided matters of state. After his death his stature swelled into legend. Tales credited him with commanding shikigami, spirit servants bound to his will, and folklore went so far as to give him a fox spirit for a mother. His traditional rival was the sorcerer Ashiya Dōman, the two of them cast as the light and shadow of a single art.
He died in 1005, more than five centuries before the Sengoku wars consumed the country. The Seimei Shrine in Kyoto still honors him, and the five-pointed star that served as the onmyōji’s seal remains a recognized mark of the tradition. In the long memory of Japan he stands as the definitive figure of the nation’s esoteric and occult heritage. He lived from 921 - 1005, but many stories have been passed down that his death was not entirely accurate...