Yakudoshi is an unlucky year for people of certain ages. Everyone has three yakudoshi during their lives. Women’s come at 19, 33, and 37. Men are 25, 42 and 61. But the Shinto way of counting birthdays adds a year to your age, so the Western ages are 18, 32, 36, 24, 41, & 60.

That means this will be an inauspicious year for me. I should make regular trips to the shine and buy lots of amulets for protection. The year before and the year following your yakudoshi are also unlucky—the prelude and poscript to rotten, I guess.

I’m not so sure about the power of amulets, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed this year. Just in case. Posted by kuri at January 07, 2002 09:34 AM