For example, 2017 was said to be good for business, as the rooster is connected with prosperity. Illustrations and photographs of the 12 animals appear on nengajō New Year cards and calendars.įortunetellers make predictions about the year’s events based on the eto, and some people think personalities are connected to the beast of their birth year. In Japan, where they are called eto, they consist of the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and boar. The zodiac’s animals vary slightly in different Asian countries. The 12 eto depicted in order on the ceiling of the front gate of Osaka’s Tenmangū Shrine. Eventually, a set of a dozen animals came to be associated with the cycle. It was originally used to reckon years, but later came into use to describe times of day and compass directions, and was even used in fortune-telling. The first system to appear was a simple set of kanji characters representing 12 numbers. The idea of zodiacal animals representing different years in a 12-year cycle originally came from China.
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