About the Koushin belief (2)

There are many Japanese expressions with the word insect (虫, mushi) in them such as: 「虫の居所が悪い」, (mushi no idokoro ga warui) or “To be in a bad mood”, and 「腹の虫が治まらない」, (Hara no mushi ga osamaranai) or “I can’t take insults like that lying down”. The truth is there are three insects in the human body from birth.

There is a “Koushin Omen” (庚申縁起), which has been passed along from the Koushin shrine at Shiten’ou (四天王寺)Temple in Osaka. I will explain this Koushin Omen below.
On Koushin eve, while people are asleep the three insects escape from the body and rise up to the sky and inform the god of sky about the person’s good and evils. After listening to the information the god of the sky, would respond relative to the importance of the sin and either shorten the person’s lifespan or even take the person’s life away. In order to escape such misfortunes, it is said that you should do good, stop doing all evils and on Koushin eve, make offerings of incense, flowers, and food and before going to sleep recite the name of Buddha in your mind.
This custom, such that on Kanoe’saru (庚申の夜) eve, while wishing for good health, you don’t sleep well came down from the nobility of the Heian period (784–1184??), and was passed along to the Samurai class of the Kamakura period(1192-1333??), and eventually began to infiltrate itself slowly into the general public.
Moreover, during the Edo period (1597-1864), this custom spread throughout the country and a group to worship the Koushin in every area was organized called the Koushin forum (庚申講). Before long, it became one of the popular beliefs of the peoples.