What Is Enma's Ledger — Meaning, Origin, and Who Records Your Deeds

Ask "what is Enma's ledger," and many people picture a teacher's grade book. But behind the word lies an old tradition: Lord Enma, the king of hell, writes down a person's deeds. This article gently explains the meaning and origin of Enma's ledger — and who does the recording.

The meaning of Enma's ledger

Enma's ledger (enmacho) is the book in which Lord Enma, ruler of hell, is said to record all the good and evil a person does while alive. When someone dies and reaches hell, Lord Enma is said to open this ledger, weigh each deed against the record, and hand down a verdict.

In other words, the ledger is a symbol of caution: even deeds you assumed no one saw are, in fact, all written down.

Origin and tradition

Lord Enma is said to derive from "Yama," a deity in Indian mythology, who spread with Buddhism to China and then to Japan. In Japan he became widely known as a judge-like figure who records the deeds of the dead and weighs the gravity of sin.

Within this belief, the idea that "all deeds are recorded" gave rise to the word enmacho. Enma is also counted among the Ten Kings who judge the dead in turn, and the ledger has been handed down as the record on which that judgment rests.

Who records your deeds — the kushojin

It is little known, but tradition says the one who writes down your deeds is not Lord Enma alone. From the very moment you are born, two gods called the "kushojin" are said to ride on your shoulders and watch over your whole life.

One records your good deeds and the other your bad, without omission, and reports the whole account to Lord Enma after death. Even how you behave where no one is watching is set down right beside you — the dread of Enma's ledger lies in this "no escape."

Its link to the jouhari mirror

If Enma's ledger is the "record," what backs it up is the jouhari mirror. This mirror is said to replay the deeds of the dead as living scenes, just as they happened.

The written record, and the undeniable evidence reflected in the mirror. However smoothly you talk your way around it, once the two are set side by side there is no evasion. Enma's ledger and the jouhari mirror are the stage props that support one lesson — "deeds cannot be hidden" — from the two sides of text and image.

How it spread into everyday words

The idea that "all deeds are recorded" eventually took root in everyday language. From the Edo period on, it spread as a metaphor for any record book, and the book a schoolteacher uses to note students' grades and conduct came to be called an "enmacho." The usage appears in literary works from early on.

An officer's notebook for jotting down information on people, or the papers on which a boss records an employee's evaluation, may also be called an "enmacho." Each likens to that hellish ledger the tension of "your deeds are seen, and written down."

How it differs from a temple death register

Hearing "a book that records the dead," some may picture a temple's "past register" (kakocho). But Enma's ledger and the past register are entirely different things. The past register is a real record a temple keeps for memorial purposes, noting the posthumous names and dates of death of its parishioners; and the Edo-period household register known as the "shumon ninbetsu aratamecho" was likewise a ledger of this-worldly officialdom.

Enma's ledger, by contrast, is the unseen record of judgment said to be held by Lord Enma in the world beyond. Even as "books," one is for the living to mourn the dead, the other for one's own deeds to be called into question. Drawing the line between them makes the weight of the ledger's warning — that "deeds remain" — stand out all the more.

Yurusen's ledger

The app "Yurusen" places this tradition into your own hands as a private ledger. It is a place to quietly bind and record the "unforgivable people" who hurt you — that is Yurusen's ledger of judgment.

The people you record take shape as "types" of wraiths fallen into hell. You are under no obligation to force yourself to forgive. Entrusting your feelings to a private book no one else will see is one way to shrink them to a manageable size and set them down a little.

You can see the wraiths on the Wraith Codex page.