KASO
What is Kaso (Japanese House Divination)?
Kaso is a traditional Japanese form of environmental divination that reads how a home’s floor plan and orientation affect comfort, wealth, and family fortune. It absorbed ideas from Chinese feng shui while developing along its own path suited to Japanese housing.
Overview
- System
- Form Reading (reads from the shape of the floor plan and orientation)
- Origin
- Japan
- What You Need
- Information on the floor plan type
- Best For
- Money, environment, life
- Time Frame
- Near term, 1 year
Origins & History
The ideas behind kaso developed in Japan based on feng shui and yin-yang/five-elements thought imported from China, intertwining with the practice of onmyōdō during the Heian period. The notion of judging the fortune of directions is said to have been incorporated into the design of aristocratic residences as well.
During the Edo period, guidebooks on kaso were widely published, and rules of thumb for floor plans—such as avoiding the kimon (northeast) and ura-kimon (southwest) directions—spread into ordinary people’s home-building as well. Even today, it is sometimes consulted when building or renovating a home, to check the floor plan and orientation.
How It Works
- 01Select the floor plan type of the home to be assessed.
- 02Check the orientation of key rooms, such as the entrance, water-related rooms, and bedroom.
- 03Compare these against the directions emphasized in kaso, such as the kimon and ura-kimon.
- 04Read how the combination of floor plan and orientation is likely to affect comfort and wealth.
What It Reveals
It is well suited to reading how a home’s floor plan and orientation are likely to affect wealth, family fortune, and comfort, and to using that as a reference for improving one’s living environment. At the same time, the criteria used in kaso vary between schools and do not always fit modern housing conditions, so it does not determine the overall quality of a home from floor plan fortune alone.
Related Methods
References
- Wikipedia: 家相 (https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%AE%B6%E7%9B%B8)