The Fire Horse Superstition—Where Did It Come From?

12/04/2025 BY Go Feisty! IT

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Today, we’re shining a light on one of Japan’s most notorious superstitions—the Fire Horse (Hinoe-Uma) myth, a story that has shaped women’s lives for centuries. Let’s learn how a tragic Edo-era love story evolved into centuries of discrimination.

“Fire Horse women devour men.”
“Fire Horse women brin disaster.”

These discriminatory beliefs have lingered in Japanese society for centuries.
Their origin can be traced back to a single story from the Edo period:
the tragic tale of a teenage girl known as Yaoya Oshichi.

A Girl in Love, a City on Fire

In 1682, a massive fire swept through Edo.
During the evacuation, a young girl—Oshichi—fell in love with a novice monk. Desperate to see him again, she was said to have set another fire,
believing that chaos would bring them back together.

For this act, she was sentenced to death by burning.
Her story shocked Edo society.

But here’s what most people don’t know:

No historical record proves that Oshichi was born in a Fire Horse year.
Whether she actually committed arson—or how much of the love story was true—remains debated.

Still, the elements were irresistible:
fire, passion, forbidden love, and a dramatic execution.

When Fiction Is Mistaken for Fact

Oshichi’s tragic story was repeatedly adapted into kabuki plays, jōruri (puppet theater), and popular literature.

The most famous versions include:

Date Musume Koi no Higanoko — “The Stylish Maiden’s Scarlet Love Story,”
a dramatized tale highlighting Oshichi as a bold young woman consumed by love.

Yaoya Oshichi Koi Higanoko — “Yaoya Oshichi: The Crimson Love Story,”
a kabuki version that romanticizes her passion and tragedy.

In these adaptations, Oshichi became the archetype of “the fiery woman,” “the man-devouring woman,” who would set the world ablaze for love.

If produced today, every retelling would begin with:

“This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons or events is coincidental.”

But Edo-era creators offered no such disclaimer. Audiences absorbed the dramatized story as if it were historical truth.

Over time, fiction solidified into belief:

A woman born in the Fire Horse year is dangerous, volatile, and destructive.

Thus began the superstition that Fire Horse women “destroy their husbands” and “bring calamity to the household.”

How the Superstition Spread—and Who It Hurt

Across the Edo (1603–1868), Meiji (1868–1912), and Taishō (1912–1926) eras — and through each Fire Horse years within them — the stereotype only grew stronger.

Fire Horse women were said to be:

too strong-willed
unlucky in marriage
destined to shorten their husband’s life

These baseless narratives affected real women’s lives and futures.

In earlier centuries, baby girls were killed at birth because families feared they would “bring misfortune.”

Fire Horse women of the 1906 Meiji Era faced the same cruelty.
Marriage prospects were denied solely because of the year they were born.
Isolation, despair, and tragically, suicides followed.

And in 1966—the most recent Fire Horse year—the superstition exploded again.
Newspapers and magazines warned expectant mothers not to give birth to Fire Horse girls.
Fearing social stigma, many avoided or terminated pregnancies.

As a result, Japan saw 450,000 fewer births than surrounding years.

This is how a fictionalized Edo-era story reshaped demographics three centuries later.

A Cultural Artifact, Not a Truth

The Fire Horse superstition emerged from:

a tragic love story
theatrical exaggeration
public confusion between art and reality
centuries of patriarchal fear of strong women

It is, at its core, a cultural fiction, not a fact.

There is no scientific evidence that Fire Horse women are unlucky, dangerous, or destructive.
Yet the superstition survived because the story was powerful—and powerfully misunderstood.