Facing Yakudoshi with a Positive Heart: Esoteric Wisdom from Kukai for Life's Turning-Point Years

What Is Yakudoshi? A Year of Anxiety, or a Year of Turning Points?

When people hear the word yakudoshi, many feel a vague dread of 'a year when bad things easily happen.' As the new year approaches, no small number of people, worried about their yakudoshi, receive misfortune-dispelling rites at shrines and temples. But is yakudoshi truly a 'year of calamity'?

Yakudoshi is an old custom that already existed in the Heian period, referring to ages in life when bodily and mental changes are especially great and one is thought to be prone to misfortune. Generally, for men the principal yakudoshi (honyaku) are ages 25, 42, and 61 by the traditional count, and for women 19, 33, and 37, with the years just before and after called maeyaku and atoyaku.

What is interesting is that these ages, even from the viewpoint of modern medicine, overlap with periods when the body and life circumstances tend to change greatly. A man's 42 and a woman's 33 are times when, in the prime of working life, one begins to feel changes in stamina while responsibilities also grow at home. From experience, people of old may have known that 'at these ages, overexertion easily takes its toll,' and used yakudoshi to urge caution. In other words, yakudoshi is less superstition than the wisdom of our forebears — a way to pause at life's turning points and re-examine ourselves.

The True Meaning of 'Yaku' in Kukai's Esoteric Buddhism

In the Shingon esoteric Buddhism that Kukai transmitted, calamity and suffering are not seen as mere 'misfortune that falls from outside.' At the foundation of esoteric Buddhism lies the idea of engi — that all events arise from the joining of countless causes and conditions.

From this standpoint, 'yaku' can be reinterpreted not as unavoidable, fated calamity, but as an event not unrelated to one's own mind and conduct. That difficulties tend to arise in a yakudoshi is precisely because, at a turning point in life, body and mind are easily thrown off balance and caution is needed. Our forebears expressed this with the word 'yaku.'

Kukai also taught 'bonno soku bodai' — that we should not loathe earthly desires and suffering themselves, but make them nourishment toward awakening. From this view, the difficulties that visit during a yakudoshi also become opportunities to deepen and grow. Rather than shrinking back in fear of calamity, we accept it as a turning point and re-order our way of living. That, precisely, is the esoteric way of meeting a yakudoshi.

What Is Actually Happening in a Misfortune-Dispelling Prayer?

A representative practice for dispelling misfortune is the goma fire ritual performed at esoteric temples. Goma is a rite in which fire is kindled in a hearth before the principal image, and wishes entrusted to firewood called gomagi are cast into the flames. It is one of the esoteric practices that Kukai formally transmitted from Tang China, handed down for twelve hundred years.

The goma flames symbolize the burning away of earthly desires and calamities. As you press your palms together before the rising flames and surrender yourself to the monks' chanting, you come to feel as though the knots and anxieties within your heart are being burned away along with the fire. This is not mere consolation. By praying before the primal power of fire, a person settles their own mind and renews their resolve.

What matters is that a misfortune-dispelling prayer is not a rite of 'leaving it to others.' To feel relieved simply because you received a rite at a temple fulfills only half of its true meaning. Use the occasion of receiving the prayer to review your own way of living — to reflect on whether you are overexerting yourself, whether you are cherishing your ties with others. That very introspection is the essence of dispelling misfortune.

The Story of a Friend Who Fell Ill During Their Yakudoshi

The time I felt yakudoshi not as someone else's affair but as something near was when I watched a friend's experience up close.

That year, my friend had just been promoted at work and entrusted with a position of heavy responsibility. Full of drive, they worked without sparing even time to rest. But around autumn they began to fall ill often, and finally took to their bed. They said, half as a joke, 'Maybe it's because it's my yakudoshi,' but anxiety seeped through those words.

In that moment I thought that perhaps this, in the end, is what yakudoshi is. Calamity does not fall from the sky; rather, in a strained period of life, mind and body cry out. After recovering, that friend re-examined the rhythm of their life and grew mindful of a way of working that did not overdo things. 'Maybe my yakudoshi gave me a reason to pause,' they later said calmly, and it stayed with me. Watching them, it sank in for me that yakudoshi is not a curse but a signal to take care of oneself.

How to Turn Yakudoshi into an Opportunity for Growth

Here are concrete ways to spend a yakudoshi not cowering in anxiety, but turning it into a turning point that re-orders your life.

First, re-examine the rhythm of your life. The ages designated as yakudoshi are times when stamina and life circumstances change easily. Inspect your habits of sleep, diet, and exercise anew, and check whether you are piling on too much strain. The very way of living that Kukai taught — 'putting daily life in order' — is the best protection from misfortune.

Second, begin new things carefully. It is sometimes said that one 'must not start anything' during a yakudoshi, but from the esoteric view of engi, that is not a prohibition but an urging to caution. When making a major decision, prepare more thoroughly than usual and lend an ear to those around you. If you keep your prudence, a yakudoshi too can become a year of new challenges.

Third, cherish your ties with people. What supports you through difficult times is, in the end, connection with others. Reach out to people you have long been out of touch with; spend more time with family. Renewing your ties becomes an invisible support.

Fourth, make the misfortune-dispelling prayer an occasion for introspection. If you receive a rite at a shrine or temple, do not let it end as mere ceremony — make it a time to quietly look back on your year. Before and after the prayer, put into words within your heart your gratitude for the past and your wishes for the future. That introspection brings the prayer to life.

Beyond Yakudoshi — The Esoteric Wisdom of Living Through Turning Points

The custom of yakudoshi is neither mere superstition nor misfortune to be avoided. It is a device of wisdom left by our forebears — a way to pause at a major turning point in life and re-examine our way of living. Kukai's esoteric Buddhism shows a path of accepting calamity as nourishment for growth, rather than shrinking back in fear of it.

Life brings many turning points beyond yakudoshi. Entering school, finding work, marriage, changing jobs, a child leaving home, retirement — at each, we come to question the balance of our body and mind. The wisdom of yakudoshi can be applied to all such turning points. It is precisely in times of change that we should pause, care for ourselves, and cherish our ties. That is the wisdom for crossing a life of high waves with serenity.

If you are now facing your yakudoshi, or standing at some turning point in life, please do not be afraid. That year is not a year of calamity meant to test you, but a gift-like time to pause in order to make the life ahead richer. Just as the goma flames purify earthly desires, a turning point too should guide you toward a new self.