Official Star Pressing Down, Peer Stars Competing: Professional Pressure and Psychological Adjustment in BaZi Through Kurihara's Errors

In September 2026, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks infielder Ryoya Kurihara made headlines for a string of fielding errors, drawing waves of public criticism. The phrase “write whatever you want” (何とでも書いてください) captures his helplessness under pressure. In BaZi, the Officer Star represents rules, discipline, and external evaluation. When an athlete makes mistakes under the spotlight, he is actually going through what classical texts call an Officer and Killings attacking the body situation.

This article does not speculate on Kurihara's actual BaZi chart. It only borrows this public event to explain how traditional Chinese metaphysics views psychological resilience and team support under high pressure, turning ancient wisdom into practical references for modern self-regulation.

Common Misconceptions

• Myth 1: BaZi fixes your whole life. Traditional Chinese astrology is actually a tool for analyzing innate energy tendencies, similar to personality types in psychology. Acquired environment, training, and self-awareness can significantly adjust how one responds.
• Myth 2: Officer and Seven Killings are always bad. The Officer Star represents responsibility, achievement, and order, while the Seven Killings represents challenge and breakthrough. In moderation, they are the driving force behind success; only when excessive or mixed do they become oppressive.
• Myth 3: Peer Stars only mean competition. In BaZi, Peer Stars are not only competitors but also partners and teammates, symbolizing whether a person can gain peer support and self-persistence during low points.

1. Officer Star: The Source of External Rules and Judgment Pressure

Among the Ten Gods in BaZi, Direct Officer and Seven Killings are collectively called Officer and Seven Killings. They represent social norms, discipline, bosses, public opinion, and all external demands that one “must do things right.” The saying Officer Star protects the Day Master originally means that Officer Star can restrain the Day Master, making one act properly and thereby gain social approval. But when Officer Star is too strong, it is like a spotlight becoming scorching: every mistake gets magnified, creating a pattern of heavy Officer pressure.

As team captain, Kurihara's title itself is a strong Officer Star. A leadership role brings extra rule-based expectations. A mistake is no longer just a technical issue; it is interpreted as a lack of responsibility. This compounding effect of officer upon officer is exactly the typical psychological overload caused by an over-strong Officer Star in classical BaZi.

• Typical mentality under excessive Officer Star: fear of making mistakes, over-concern with others' evaluations, hesitant action, reduced creativity.
• Ancient coping idea: resolve it with the Seal Star, that is, transform pressure through learning, reflection, and guidance from mentors, turning external judgment into nourishment for growth, not just a burden.

2. Peer Stars: Teammates, Competition, and Self-Persistence

Friend and Rob Wealth together are called Peer Stars. They represent peers, teammates, competitors, and also the Day Master's own self-esteem and stubbornness. During an athlete's low period, the role of Peer Stars is particularly crucial: they can be a helping hand that pulls you up, or an invisible push into comparison anxiety.

When a strong hitter is in a slump, other teammates who perform well can easily create Peer Star competition. Healthy competition drives improvement, but if the Day Master is inherently weak, too many Peer Stars can instead cause Peer Stars robbing the Officer, that is, losing one's own rhythm because of excessive focus on teammates' performance and self-doubt.

• Positive role of Peer Stars: provide emotional support, share the burden of pressure, ignite the fighting spirit of not wanting to fall behind.
• Negative role of Peer Stars: create a sense of isolation like “why am I the only one making mistakes,” or fall into blindly imitating others' movements and losing one's own style.
• Key adjustment: like the ancients regulating a chart, distinguish between “borrowable strength” and “discardable comparison”: draw warmth from the team and let go of useless comparison.

3. Mixed Officer and Seven Killings: Amplified Public Opinion and Mental Noise

When Direct Officer and Seven Killings appear together in a BaZi chart, it is called mixed Officer and Seven Killings. In real life, this is equivalent to facing dual pressure from legitimate rules (coaches, records) and wild attacks (haters, malicious comments). On the public opinion field, support and abuse coexist, just like Officer and Killings intermingled, making a person unable to advance or retreat.

Kurihara's phrase “write whatever you want” is exactly a psychological defense under mixed Officer and Seven Killings. When external evaluation standards become chaotic—rational criticism mixed with emotional attacks—the Day Master will instinctively activate the psychological mechanism of abandoning Officer and turning to Output, that is, trying to cut off outside voices and return to self-feelings. But if handled improperly, it can instead fall into resisting Officer as a taboo, meaning resistance becomes avoidance, hurting subsequent performance.

• Typical reactions to mixed Officer and Seven Killings: information overload, decision hesitation, defensive posture both internally and externally.
• Traditional coping strategy: classical BaZi texts emphasize “remove the Seven Killings and keep the Direct Officer” or “remove the Direct Officer and keep the Seven Killings”—that is, clarify sources of pressure, accept only constructive criticism, block malicious attacks, and do not expect to please everyone.

4. Day Master Strength: The Inner Foundation of Personal Stress Resistance

The Day Master represents the person themselves; its strength determines the fundamental ability to bear Officer and Killings and manage Peer Stars. Whether an athlete can quickly rebound during a low period is essentially related to his or her “Day Master foundation,” and this foundation does not refer to physical stamina, but to psychological stability and sense of self-identity.

If the Day Master is strong—like towering Jia Wood—even strong Officer and Killings can be viewed as tempering, and the person becomes braver as setbacks mount. If the Day Master is weak—like flexible Yi Vine—then it needs the help of the Seal Star (learning, coach's trust) and Peer Stars (teammate support) to indirectly dissolve pressure. This idea of “a strong body can bear Officer; a weak body needs the Seal” is fully consistent with the concepts of mental toughness and social support systems in modern sports psychology.

• Strong Day Master: suitable for directly facing challenges, turning criticism into motivation, and capable of taking on leadership roles.
• Weak Day Master: should not force themselves to bear it alone; they need to actively seek coach's guidance and teammates' encouragement, using the method of “Seal transforming the Killing” to digest pressure through outside wisdom.
• Self-awareness: you don't need to classify yourself by BaZi, but you can ask: Am I in “hard-carrying until collapse” mode, or “borrowing strength to transform” mode?

Precautions

• Do not over-identify: this article does not involve Kurihara's actual chart; all analysis is only using a public event to explain traditional theory. Please do not infer anyone else's BaZi on your own.
• Do not be superstitious about “remedies”: the “useful god” in BaZi should be understood as a direction for psychological adjustment, not as wearing some amulet to turn things around. Real resolution lies in cognitive change and action.
• Do not neglect professional help: when athletes or ordinary people fall into long-term anxiety or self-denial, priority should be given to sports psychologists or clinical psychologists. BaZi is only a cultural perspective for auxiliary understanding.
• Do not use game results to retroactively verify BaZi: competitive sports involve high uncertainty. A single error or a slump cannot be used to validate BaZi; that is a “post-hoc attribution” fallacy.
• Do not treat Officer and Killings entirely as enemies: moderate pressure is the catalyst for excellence. No achievement can be born in a completely pressure-free environment; the key is the balance between pressure and carrying capacity.

Kurihara's errors and the ensuing media storm offer a vivid window for observing the fourfold relationship among Officer Star, Peer Stars, mixed Officer and Seven Killings, and Day Master strength. BaZi is not a predestination calculator, but an ancient wisdom system for analyzing pressure and support.

When outside evaluations pour in like a tide, it is worth recalling the ancients' lesson: when Officer and Killings attack, transform them with the Seal, share them with Peer Stars, or restrain them with Output—never close your eyes and hard-carry until collapse. In a professional low point, clarifying the sources of pressure and drawing on team and wisdom is exactly the most practical psychological adjustment method that traditional BaZi leaves us.