Posted on 09/04/2014 5:28:33 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Could being born in a year deemed unlucky wind up a self-fulfilling prophecy? That may be what befell Japanese girls born in 1966, otherwise known as a year of the fire horse, or hinoeuma in Japanese.
Women born in such a year, superstition holds, have troubled marriages, mistreat men, and cause early deaths for their husbands and fathers. It was one such woman, according to legend, who nearly burned down the capital in 1682, after setting a local temple on fire for love of a man who worked there. (She was sentenced to burn at the stake.)
In 2010, researchers Hiroyuki Yamada of Osaka University and Satoshi Shimizutani of Japan's Gender Equality Bureau checked in on women born in 1966, the most recent year of the fire horse, to see how they'd fared. The women, the researchers found, were in fact more likely to have been divorced than those close to them in age (born just a few years before or after). They were also less likely to have completed higher education, and their average household income was nearly 500,000 yen (about $5,000) lower.
(Excerpt) Read more at foreignpolicy.com ...
I insulted the Japanese husband. He showed me some pictures of his wife and children in a magazine. I said “you should be very proud of your beautiful family”. Apparently when he learned English the word “proud” did not have a favorable meaning. He took it as an insult I guess and he hasn’t been very friendly since. His loss, I am a great neighbor! :)
I can’t explain that. Was the husband’s English good?
Yes I think so, he is a dentist but he was obviously insulted by the word proud. According to my Little Oxford Dictionary it means haughty and arrogant, along with a few other things. :)
Pride, afterall, is one of the 7 deadly sins.
The Japanese burned a woman at the stake in 1682??? Isn’t that trademark infringement?
Any and all Japanese women having trouble finding love due to birth date, or for any other reason, should drop me a line; they’re more than welcome to fire up this Ol’ Horse.
I think that must have been the way he looked at my comment.
So, in other words, they are inscrutable?
I just love that word.
I grew up surrounded by all types of Asians; I find them fairly scrutable at this point.
What motivates them? I can’t understand people who are indifferent to religion. Positive, yes. Antagonistic, yes. But indifferent? No.
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