The Lunisolar Calendar:

A Sociology of Japanese Time

Jessica Kennett Cork

DISSERTATION.COM

Boca Raton

The Lunisolar Calendar:

A Sociology of Japanese Time
Copyright 2010 Jessica Kennett Cork
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information
storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.
Dissertation.com
Boca Raton, Florida
USA 2011
ISBN-10: 1-61233-760-0
ISBN-13: 978-1-61233-760-9

Table of Contents

Introduction ......................................................................................................... .3

Chapter 1 ..................................................................................................................... 5
The Cultural Significance of the Lunisolar Calendar as Viewed Through Classical Texts

Chapter 2 ................................................................................................................... 38
Calendar Reform as an Instrument of Political Control

Chapter 3 ................................................................................................................... 57
The Lunisolar Calendar Today

Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 66

Glossary ..................................................................................................................... 69

References.................................................................................................................. 74

Introduction

No single aspect of life is more fundamental to the way we, as humans, experience our existence
than our concept of time. -Patricia Gndara (2000, 1)

On the ninth day of the Eleventh Month of Meiji 5 (1872), the people of Japan received the
startling news in the form of an imperial decree that the notations on the calendar they had been
using for over 1,200 years are false, have no factual basis, and hinder the development of human
knowledge, and the emperor would abolish the old calendar, adopt the solar calendar, and order
the realm to obey it for eternity (Okada, 1994, 118).
This study shall explore the social and political significance of the so-called kyreki, the old
calendar the new Meiji government was so eager to abolish. The lunisolar calendar was the
principal method of timekeeping in Japan from 604 to 1872, but has received little attention from
English speaking scholars. Perhaps this is because scholars have accepted the temporality of
modernity (Tanaka, 2004, 14), or because the Meiji government was so successful at naturalizing
modern time into Japanese history and society (Tanaka, 2004, 17), or because we tend to take time
for granted due to its ever-present nature (Zerubavel, 1981, ix).

Regardless of the reasons for its

neglect, I shall argue that the study of the lunisolar calendar is essential to gaining a comprehensive
understanding of pre-Meiji society and political history because a calendar is a symbolic reflection
of a societys values (Zerubavel, 1977, 872; Zerubavel, 1982, xiv).

In the words of Hughes (1958,

18), the calendar embodies the social memory[it] is the warp of the fabric of society, running
lengthwise through time, and carrying and preserving the woof, which is the structure of relations
3

among men, and things we call institutions.

Chapter 1 shall use a detailed analysis of an actual lunisolar calendar coupled with passages
from pre-Meiji historical and literary texts to support Doggetts (2005, 575) contention that the
common theme of calendar making is the desire to organize units of time to satisfy the needs and
preoccupations of society. This exercise will show that the lunisolar calendar reflects the value
pre-Meiji society placed on minute seasonal changes, the phases of the moon, and divination
controlled by various directional deities.

It shall also demonstrate how an understanding of the

lunisolar calendar is vital to fully comprehend classical Japanese texts.

Chapter 2 shall explore how calendar reform has been enacted throughout Japanese history to
promote the values of new political regimes. The Yamato kings in the fifth century, Empress
Suiko and Shtoku Taishi in the seventh century, Empress Shtoku in the eighth century, and the
Tokugawa Shgunate in the seventeenth century all implemented a calendar reform in order to
legitimate their regimes, consolidate political authority, and impose their own values onto society.
The Meiji government went a step further by abolishing the lunisolar calendar entirely because it
reflected the cultural values of the localized, agrarian-based society the government was trying to
replace with a centralized, industrial society.
Chapter 3 will discuss the state of the lunisolar calendar in modern Japan, first analyzing how
the calendar survived the Meiji governments attempt to obliterate it and the effect the Meiji
calendar reform had on how the lunisolar calendar is understood today.

It will then discuss how

the current revival of interest in the lunisolar calendar reflects the value modern society places on
nostalgia for the past, which has arisen as part of the modernization process.

Chapter 1
The Cultural Significance of the Lunisolar Calendar
as Viewed Through Classical Texts

For over 1,200 years, Japanese society undulated to the rhythm of the lunisolar calendar.
This is clearly reflected in classical texts, which often reference lunisolar dates, moon phases,
lunisolar calendar-based seasonal changes, annual events, and calendar-based divination.
Writers of these texts frequently supplied only one piece of information, such as the date,
because they expected that readers would automatically understand the corresponding moon
phase, season, or event, but this implicit information is often lost on modern readers unfamiliar
with the lunisolar calendar. This chapter will use a line-by-line analysis of a lunisolar calendar
from 1844 coupled with passages from classical texts to illustrate how the elements included on
the calendar reflect social values at the time. This exercise will demonstrate that knowledge of
the lunisolar calendar is vital to understanding classical Japanese texts.
The calendar that originated in China in the thirteenth century BCE (Aslaksen, 2009, 40)
and is used throughout Asia is often called a lunar calendar in English, but this is a misnomer.
This calendar is actually a lunisolar calendar, or a calendar that integrates the solar-based unit of
the year with the lunar-based unit of the month[paying] attention to the waxing and waning of
the moon while also observing the solstices and equinoxes (Dalby, 2007, xix). This contrasts
with pure lunar calendars, such as the Islamic calendar, on which no attempt is made to keep the
start of the year in synchrony with the sun (Richards, 1999, 99-100).
The following is an Ise calendar from Temp 15 (1844), a prime example of a

kana-goyomi, or regional calendar written in Japanese script.

The Ise calendar was the most

widely used calendar in the Edo period (1603-1868) (Kokuritsu Kokkai Toshokan [KKT], 1984,
25).

 The first line of the calendar indicates that the calendar was made in Ise Watari-gun
Yamada, present day Ise City in Mie Prefecture.
Yamaguchi Uhei, the name of the publisher.
Since Temp 15 was the first year that the Temp calendar was used, it contains an
explanation of the changes that have been made.

They include designating nine bell tolls, or

approximately 12:00 am, rather than six bell tolls, or approximately 6:00 am, as the start of a
new day, and switching from the fixed time method, in which day and night were of equal
lengths, to the unfixed time method, in which the length of an hour changes according to the
season in order to synchronize the calendar with astronomical time.
The calendar year is expressed both by era name (fifteenth year of the Temp era)
and sexagenary cycle (kinoe-tatsu). The sexagenary cycle, which dates to the twelfth century
BCE in China, is a cycle of sixty made by pairing two systems of enumeration, the Ten Stems
and the Twelve Branches, as follows:
Ten Stems
Chinese Character

Chinese reading
K
Otsu
Hei
Tei
Bo
Ki
K
Shin
Jin
Ki

Japanese reading
Kinoe1
Kinoto
Hinoe
Hinoto
Tsuchinoe
Tsuchinoto
Kanoe
Kanoto
Mizunoe
Mizunoto

Element
Wood
Fire
Earth
Metal
Water

The Japanese reading for each of the Ten Stems contains the element and then the term e (older brother) or to
(younger brother). E is the yng, or positive, essence and to is the yn, or negative essence (Ichinoe, 1913, 53).

Twelve Branches
Chinese
character

Chinese
reading

Japanese
reading

Animal

Associated solar
stem

Month

Eleventh
Month

Direction

Element

Shi

Ne

Rat

Tji Winter
solstice

Ch

Ushi

Ox

Daikan
Greater
cold

Twelfth
Month

In

Tora

Tiger

Usui Rain
and water

First
Month

Rabbit

Shunbun
Vernal
equinox

Second
Month

East (90)

Wood

Dragon

Koku-u
Grain rain

Third
Month

Eastsoutheast
(120)

Earth

Fourth
Month

Southsoutheast
(150)

Fire

Fifth
Month

South (180)

Fire

Shin

Tatsu

Shi

Mi

Snake

Go

Uma

Horse

Mi

Hitsuji

Sheep

Shin

Saru

Monkey

Tori

Cock

Shman
Initial
filling of the
grain
Geshi
Summer
solstice
Taisho
Greater
heat
Shosho
Cessation of
heat
Shbun
Autumnal
equinox

Sixth
Month
Seventh
Month
Eighth
Month

Jutsu

Inu

Dog

Sk Frost
descends

Gai

Boar

Shsetsu
Tenth
Light snow Month

Ninth
Month

North (0)
Northnortheast
(30)
Eastnortheast
(60)

Southsouthwest
(210)
Westsouthwest
(240)
West (270)
Westnorthwest
(300)
Northnorthwest
(330)

Water
Earth
Wood

Earth
Metal

Metal

Earth
Water

The Sexagenary Cycle

1

kinoene

kinotoushi

hinoetora

hinotou

11

kinoeinu

12

kinotoi

13

hinoene

14

hinotoushi

21

kinoesaru

22

kinototori

23

hinoeinu

24

hinotoi

31

kinoeuma

32

kinotohitsuji

33

hinoesaru

34

hinototori

41

kinoetatsu

42

kinotomi

43

hinoeuma

44

hinotohitsuji

51

kinoetora

52

kinotou

53

hinoetatsu

54

hinotomi

tsuchinoetatsu
15

tsuchinoetora
25

tsuchinoe-ne
35

tsuchinoeinu
45

tsuchinoesaru
55

tsuchinoeuma

tsuchinotomi
16

tsuchinoto-u

kanoeuma

mizuno
e-saru

17

kanoetatsu

kanotohitsuji
18

kanoto-mi

26

tsuchinotoushi
36

tsuchinoto-i

27

kanoetora

28

kanoto-u

29

mizuno
e-tatsu

37

kanoene

38

kanoto-ushi

39

mizuno
e-tora

46

tsuchinototori
56

tsuchinotohitsuji

47

kanoeinu

48

kanoto-i

49

mizuno
e-ne

57

kanoesaru

58

kanoto-tori

59

mizuno
e-inu

19

mizuno
e-uma

10

mizunototori
20

mizunotohitsuji
30

mizunotomi
40

mizunotou
50

mizunotoushi
60

mizunoto-i

The table is divided into ten columns to fit the ten stems, so the first symbol in each pair in the
same column is identical.

As there are twelve branches, two are left over at the end of the first

row, four in the second row, six at the end of the third, eight at the end of the fourth, and ten at
the end of the fifth row, which fill in the sixth row to complete a cycle of sixty (Cohen, 2000,
424).
The sexagenary cycle of the year in which one is born is often used to determine ones
fortune. Any modern sociologist looking at population trends has surely noticed the
tremendous drop in the birthrate in 1966. This was because 1966 was a hinoe-uma, or fire
horse year, an extremely inauspicious year for girls (Matsuda, 1987, 222-229).
10

 The name of the calendar, Temp jinin genreki. The sexagenary cycle
designation jinin was added to the calendar name to distinguish it from a calendar of the same
name that had existed in China (Yabuuchi, 1943, 454).
This line gives the years lunar mansion, Kyoshuku, the emptiness mansion, for
divinatory purposes. The Twenty-eight Lunar Mansions are the stars used to track the progress
of the moon across the sky during the twenty-eight nights of its visibility (Weinstock, 1949, 48).
It originated in China during the Spring and Autumn Period (mid-eighth century BCE to early
fifth century BCE) and was brought to Japan in 804 by Buddhist monk and scholar Kb-daishi
(774-835) (Nagata, 1989, 144).
Mansions.

Several classical texts mention the Twenty-eight Lunar

In Makura no sshi (1002; tr. The Pillow Book of Sei Shnagon), Sei Shnagon lists

one of the most well-known mansions, Subaruboshi, the hairy head mansion (Tauri), in her
list of stars (Matsuda, 1987, 192).

In Tsurezuregusa (1332; tr. Essays in Idleness), Yoshida

Kenk (1967, 198) describes the particularly bright Tataraboshi, the bond mansion, (
Arietis) as a good backdrop for viewing the full moon.
This notation explains that Temp 15 shall be a standard year of 355 days.

The

length of the year changed whenever the approximately eleven-day discrepancy between the
354.36708-day lunar year and the 365.2425-day tropical year necessitated the insertion of an
intercalary month after months containing no solar stem (Okada, 2006, 21-22) to keep the two
calendars in sync. This was done seven times in a nineteen-year cycle (Aslaksen, 2009, 9;
Cohen, 2000, 414). The insertion of an intercalary month caused the season in which the
intercalary month occurred to lengthen from three to four months. The longer spring and
special year mentioned in Poem 61 in the Kokin wakash (ca. 905; Anthology of Past and

11

Present Japanese Poetry) refers to the intercalary Third Month which occurred in the year the
poem was written:
O cherry blossoms-
even in the longer spring
of this special year
must you refuse once again
to grant us satiety? (Ki no Tsurayuki, Ki no Tomonori, Mibu no Tadamine,
shikchi Mitsune, 1985, 25).
The extent to which society heeded directional taboos can be seen in the prominent
location such information occupies on the calendar. The section in green lists the directions
each of the Eight Warrior Gods will control that year. These were the gods of Onmyd, the
way of yn and yng, a method of divination adopted in Japan during Emperor Tenmus reign
(673-686) that combined the Chinese principles of yn and yng, the Five Elements, and the
sexagenary cycle with Shint rituals such as purification and defilement (Butler, 1996, 191).
By the Heian period (794-1185), Onmyd had evolved into a complex system of taboos, which
affected virtually every aspect of court life (Morris, 1964, 138-140). For example, the author of
Kager nikki (ca. 970; tr. The Gossamer Journal) writes, Shortly after the twentieth of the Fifth
Month, I avoided a forty-five-day directional taboo by moving into a house belonging to my
father (Michitsunas Mother, 1990, 128). Similarly, in Genji monogatari (ca. 1021; tr. The
Tale of Genji), Genji uses a directional taboo as a convenient excuse for not returning home and
instead spending the night with Utsusemi (Murasaki Shikibu, 1976, 38). Also in Genji
monogatari, Prince Niou is annoyed to find his consort Nakanokimi washing her hair when he
12

arrives for a visit, but her lady-in-waiting explains, This is the last good day before the end of
the month, and of course she cant do it next month or the month after, (Murasaki Shikibu, 1976,
953) meaning that it was the last auspicious day to wash her hair before the taboo on hair
washing in the Ninth and Tenth Months.
The first line of this section explains that during the current year the god Daizai2 will
rule the direction of the dragon (east-southeast) and that all things done facing this direction are
auspicious, except cutting down trees.
Daijgun will rule the direction of the rat, or north.

This direction will be taboo for

three years starting in the current year.

Daion will rule the direction of the tiger, or east-northeast.

Giving birth in this

direction should be avoided.

This mark, known as the three mirror jewel, appeared on all lunisolar calendars.

It

depicts the three celestial maidens, Tensei-gyokujo, Shokusei-gyokujo, and Tagan-gyokujo, who
represent the Three Powers of heaven, earth, and man, or the Three Bodies of the Buddhist
Trikaya Doctrine, the past, present, and future (Uchida, 1975, 52).
This section, in purple, explains that the akikata, the years auspicious direction ruled
by the year goddess Toshitoku, is between the direction of the tiger (east-northeast) and the
direction of the hare (east).

Hatsumde, the first shrine visit of New Year, derives from the

custom of eh-mairi, in which one would visit a Shint shrine or Buddhist temple that was
located in the years lucky direction to pray for a bountiful harvest and safety in the New Year
2

There are various readings for the names of the Eight Warrior Gods due to the lack of diacritic marks in
pre-Tokugawa texts. The readings given here are the ones specified by Tsuchimikado Yasukuni in 1755 (Uchida,
1975, 50).

13

(Nagata, 1989, 5).

This section, in red, explains that Konjin, the god of metal who is associated with
compass directions, will be present in the horse (south), sheep (south-southwest), monkey
(west-southwest), and cock (west) directions, all considered unlucky in Temp 15.
Saiky will rule the direction of the dragon (east-southeast). Seeds should not be
sown facing this direction.
Saiba will rule the direction of the dog (west-northwest). One should neither travel
nor board a ship in this direction.
Saisetsu will rule the direction of the sheep (south-southwest). One should not
receive ones bride from this direction.
Wauban will rule the direction of the dragon (east-southeast).

It is lucky to shoot an

arrow in this direction.

Hybi will rule the direction of the dog (west-northwest). One must not urinate,
defecate, or buy livestock in this direction.
This section, in orange, shows a compass that illustrates the fortune for each direction.
The center of the compass contains the four cardinal directions. The second tier gives more
precise directions, symbolized by the sexagenary cycle, which alternate between the Ten Stems
and the Twelve Branches. The third tier contains divinatory notations for each direction.
They are as follows, clockwise from the top:
A) Konjin resides in the horse (south), sheep (south-southwest), monkey

14

(west-southwest), and cock (west) directions.

B) Saisetsu resides in the sheep direction (south-southwest).
C) Saiba and Hybi reside in the direction of the dog (west-northwest).
D) The term fusakari, to occupy, indicates that Daijgun will occupy the rat direction
(north) for three years.
E) Kimon, ghost gate, is in the northeast, the universally inauspicious direction, which
stems from the Chinese belief that ghosts enter the world from the northeast. Even in modern
Japan, many believe one can ward off evil by planting peach trees in the northeast part of the
garden (Matsuda, 1987, 209), and it is still considered unlucky to build a home facing northeast
or to place a toilet or bath in the northeast part of the house (Kawaguchi, Ikeda, T., Ikeda, M.,
1980, 107).
F) Daion resides in the direction of the tiger, east-northeast.
G) Toshitoku resides in the direction of the monkey (west-southwest).
H) The gods Daizai, Saiky, and Wauban reside in the dragon direction (east-southeast).
Four of the eight characters used in Daoist cosmology appear on the outermost tier of the
compass to indicate the ordinal directions.
This section, in blue, explains that the god Dokjin will rule the hearth in the spring,
the gate in the summer, the well in the autumn, and the courtyard in the winter.

It was

considered extremely inauspicious to make repairs to any of these places while Dokjin was in
residence (Morris, 1964, 138).

In Sarashina nikki (early eleventh century; tr. As I Crossed a

Bridge of Dreams), Lady Sarashina refers to Dokjins curse, writing, Towards the end of the
15

Third Month I moved into a friends house to escape the Earth God (Sugawara, 1971, 49).
This section tells users the length of each month for that year. Months could be either
twenty-nine or thirty days and varied from year to year. Since the mean synodic month is 29.53
days, one would expect that it would be sufficient to simply alternate long and short months. This
was the case until 619, when it was discovered that due to the orbital eccentricity of the moon and
Earth, the length of a lunation varies by several hours according to the season. Thereafter, the
length of each month was calculated according to the true moon method rather than the mean
moon method, which made it possible to have up to four long months or three short months in a
row (Aslaksen, 2009, 19; Okada, 2006, 29).
From this section onward, all notations refer to individual months. The First Month
is a thirty-day month.
This is the First Months sexagenary cycle.

The months Celestial Stem is

determined by its prescribed pairing with the years Celestial Stem. Since Temp 15 is a kinoe
year, the First Months Celestial Stem must be hinoe. Notice that the Celestial Stem for the
Second Month, hinoto, follows in sequence.

The months Earthly Branch is determined by the

direction in which Eta Ursae Majoris, the star at the end of the handle of the Big Dipper, points
during that month.

The First Month must occur when Eta Ursae Majoris points in the tiger

direction, or east-northeast (Okada, 2006, 196).

The First Months lunar mansion is Kakushuku, the horn mansion.
This notation explains that the first day of the First Month will be in the Kyoshuku, or
emptiness mansion, and will fall on a Sunday.

16

The Western seven-day week first appeared in

China during the Tng Dynasty (618-907) (Matsumura, 2002, 71) and was brought to Japan in
806 by Buddhist monk Kb-daishi (774-835) as part of the Sutra on the Lunar Mansions and
Luminaries. Prior to this, Japan used the sexagenary cycle for naming the days of the week
(Watanabe, 1976, 88).

Western nomenclature for the seven-day week disappeared in China, but

was revived in Japan on the Jky calendar in 1689 (Watanabe, 1976, 438).

However, the

seven-day week had no significance in Japan other than for divination purposes until the
Gregorian calendar was adopted in 1873 and Sunday was made a day of rest (Hane, 2003, 63).
This section contains rekich, or calendar notations, for each day of the month. The
upper tier contains the date written in Chinese characters and the sexagenary cycle and
Jnichoku written in Japanese script. The Jnichoku is a cycle of twelve prognostications,
based on the Sutra on the Lunar Mansions and Luminaries, which are assigned on a rotating basis
to each days Earthly Branch (Matsuda, 1987, 185). The sexagenary cycle for the first day of
the First Month is tsuchinoe-tatsu, earth, older brother, dragon, and the Jnichoku is tatsu,
build. Tatsu is considered an auspicious day for entering school, the coming-of-age ceremony,
raising the first pillar of a building, and traveling.
On the lunisolar calendar, the days of the month correspond to the phases of the moon,
which always occurs on the same day every month, as follows:
Day
of the
month

Japanese

English

Shingetsu, New moon. The first day of

the month is read tsuitachi, the moon starts,
meaning that the new moon is starting on its
New
journey around the earth (Hirose, 1978, 16).
moon
Shingetsu can also refer to the moon on the
second day of the month, Futsukazuki, when
a thin crescent is visible.
17

Northern
hemisphere
visibility

Not visible

Time
Visible

N/A

Mikazuki, Third-day moon.

14

Jgen no tsuki, Upward bow moon, so

called because when it sets, the drawn-bow
shape faces upward; Hangetsu, Half moon.
Jsanyazuki, Thirteenth night moon. The
Ninth Month Jsanyazuki is thought
especially beautiful.
Komochizuki, Little full moon.

15

Mangetsu or Mochizuki, Full moon.

7
13

Izayoizuki, Hesitating moon. After sunset,

it seems to hesitate in the twilight before
rising.
Tachimachizuki, Standing and waiting
moon.

16
17

Imachizuki. Even later to rise, this is the

sitting and waiting moon.

18
19

Waxing
crescent
moon
First
quarter
moon

Right 1-49%
Right 50%

Afternoon
and
post-dusk
Afternoon
and early
night

Waxing
gibbous
moon

Right 51-99%

Afternoon
and most
of night

Full
moon

Fully visible

Sunset to
sunrise

Waning
gibbous
moon

Left 51-99%

Most of
night and
morning

Nemachizuki, Sleeping and waiting moon.

Fukemachizuki, Waiting late into the night
moon.

20
22-23

Kagen no tsuki, Lower bowstring moon.

Nijsanyazuki, Twenty-third day moon.

24-28

N/A

29 or
30

Misokazuki, dark day moon, when the

moon is no longer visible. This is the origin
of the word misoka for New Years Eve.

Last
quarter
moon
Waning
crescent
moon
Dark
moon

Left 50%
Left 1-49%
Last visible
crescent

Late night
and
morning
Pre-dawn
and
morning
Before
sunrise

(Matsuda, 1987, 250-254; Matsui, 2010)

Knowledge of both the days of the month on which the above moon phases occur, as well
as the attributes of each moon phase, is essential to understanding classical Japanese texts, as
illustrated by the following examples:
In Chikamatsu Monzaemons Daikyji mukashi goyomi (1715; The Almanac Maker and
the Old Almanac), the plot hinges on readers awareness that the date the story occurs, the first

18

day of the Eleventh Month, is a dark, new moon night.

Ishuns wife, Osan, overhears her

husband making a pass at the maidservant, Otama, and goes to sleep in Otamas room in an
attempt to prevent Ishuns philandering.

On the same night, Mohei, grateful to Otama for

covering up a crime he had committed, visits Otamas room. With no moonlight to guide him,
he doesnt realize that it is actually Osan sleeping there, not Otama.

The two are put to death

for the crime they commit (Matsumura, 2008b, 2).

Viewing the moon on the thirteenth night of the month is a custom unique to Japan. The
author of Sarashina nikki need only mention the date for readers to picture the almost-full moon
she describes in the passage, On the thirteenth night of that month the moon shone brightly,
lighting every corner of the earth (Sugawara, 1971, 52).
The full moon is, by far, the most referenced moon phase in Japanese literature.

Notice

that whenever the author gives the date as the fifteenth of the month, such as in the following
examples, rarely is it explicitly mentioned that the moon is full because the author feels this
information is redundant due to the ties between the calendar and moon phases.
Genji monogatari (ca. 1021; tr. The Tale of Genji)
Genji remembered when a brilliant moon rose that tonight was the fifteenth of the month
(Murasaki Shikibu, 2006, 243).

Taketori monogatari (tenth century; tr. The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter)
Kaguyahime has told the old couple that messengers from the moon will come for her
on the fifteenth of the Eighth Month (McCullough, 1990, 34).

19

Heike monogatari (1371; tr. The Tale of the Heike)

We are told that the true nature of the phenomenal world is like the unclouded
fourteenth- or fifteenth-day moon soaring high and bright (McCullough, 1988, 186).

After the full moon, moonrise is at increasingly later times, so the moon phases that occur
between the sixteenth and twentieth days of the month are often used as a literary tool to convey
a sense of waiting.

In Genji monogatari, T no Chj expresses his annoyance at having to

wait around for Genji by calling him a sixteenth-night moon (Murasaki Shikibu, 1976, 115).
This sense of waiting is similarly expressed in this poem in Kokin wakash:
Of late we two meet
but seldom, and since this day
is the Twentieth,
the night will be far advanced
before moon or means appears
(Ki no Tsurayuki, et al., 1985, 234).

It is clear why the night was so dark in the following passages, once one is aware that on
the last two nights of the month, the moon is just a thin sliver or no longer visible.

Tosa nikki (ca. 935; Tosa Journal)

Ki no Tsurayuki (1985, 281) writes on the moonless thirtieth day of the First Month,
We left around midnight, having heard that the pirates were inactive at night, and began to
negotiate the Awa Strait whirlpool.

It was too dark to tell one direction from another, but we

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managed to get through with both sexes praying frantically to the gods and the buddhas.

Tsurezuregusa (1332; tr. Essays in Idleness)

On the last night of the year, when it has grown very dark, pine torches are lit, and on
late into the night people pounding gates and running about makes one wonder what is
happening (Chance, 1997, 157).

As in literature, it is necessary to pay close attention to the corresponding moon phase

when dates are provided in historical accounts.

For example, the Soga Brothers planned their

attack to avenge their fathers death for the twenty-eighth day of the Fifth Month, when they
would have been aided in their stealthy attack by the cover of darkness provided by a crescent
moon (Kobayashi, 2002, 194).

In the Ikedaya Incident on the fifth day of the Sixth Month of

Genji 1 (1864), the darkness helped the masterless samurai employed by the Chsh and Tosa
clans escape attack. The fifth day crescent moon would already have set at dusk.
The middle tier, in yellow, gives the Five Melodic Elements.

These should not be

understood to be the day of the week, which was given in line 25, but a form of divination in
which each day is assigned to one of the five traditional Chinese elements of wood, fire, earth,
metal, and water. After the third day, the same element applies to two days in a row.
The second part of the middle tier, in cyan, contains the Zassetsu, or special days
signifying the changing of the seasons as determined by the angle of the sun on the ecliptic
(Matsumura, 2002, 58).
Name
Doy

The annual Zassetsu are as follows:

Meaning

Date

Earth period, a fifth season inserted by

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Eighteen or

2010
Gregorian
Calendar
January 17

the Chinese in order to apply the five

elements to the four seasons. Spring
was wood, summer was fire, autumn
was metal, and winter was water.
Setsubun

Division between winter and spring.

Higan

Buddhist festival memorializing

deceased ancestors.

Shanichi

Earth god festival to pray for a

bountiful harvest.

Hachijhachi-ya Ideal day for picking tea.

Nybai

Beginning of the rainy season.

Hangesh

Farmers avoided planting seeds after

this day, on which it was believed a
poisonous air would blow.
Day around which typhoons are
concentrated.

Nihyakutooka

nineteen day
period before the
lunisolar calendar
start of spring,
summer, fall, and
winter.
Day before
Risshun, the
inception of
spring.
Three days before
and after the vernal
and autumnal
equinoxes.
The closest
tsuchinoe day to
the vernal and
autumnal
equinoxes.
Eighty-eighth day
after Risshun, the
inception of
spring.
First mizunoe day
after Bshu,
Grain
seeds with awn.
Eleventh day after
the summer
solstice.
210th day after
Risshun, the
inception of
spring.

April 17
July 20
October 20

February 3

March 18-24
September
20-26
March 19
September 25

May 2

June 11

July 2
September 1

(Cohen, 2000, 412; Kawaguchi, Ikeda, T., Ikeda, M., 1980, 185; Matsumura, 2002, 63; National
Astronomical Observatory of Japan Mitaka Library, 2008; Okada, 2006, 261-263)
This section also lists annual ritual and religious services, holidays, and festivals.

The

most important holidays of the year were the Gosekku, the auspicious five seasonal divisions,
which took place on the double yng days of the first day of the First Month, the third day of the

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Third Month, the fifth day of the Fifth Month, the seventh day of the Seventh Month and the
ninth day of the Ninth Month. They marked the New Year, the first serpent day of the Third
Month, the first horse day of the Fifth Month, the Star Festival, and the Double Yng Festival
respectively. The Seven Herbs Festival, which occurs on the seventh day of the First Month,
was added later.
The original meanings of these festivals can be clearly seen in classical literature.

In

Kokin wakash, the Ninna Emperor writes of the connection between picking herbs on the Seven
Herbs Festival and the departing winter and coming spring:
For your sake alone,
I went forth to springtime fields
and plucked these young greens
while snow fell unceasingly
onto the sleeve of my robe (Ki no Tsurayuki, et al., 1985, 18).
Genji monogatari explains how people would purify themselves by floating dolls in the sea as a
means of ritual purification on the third day of the Third Month: Plain, rough curtains were strung up
among the trees, and a soothsayer who was doing the circuit of the province was summoned to perform
the lustration. Genji thought he could see something of himself in the rather large doll being cast off to
sea, bearing away sins and tribulations (Murasaki Shikibu, 1976, 245). Both Michitsunas Mother
(1990, 111) in Kager nikki and Sei Shnagon (1967, 24) in Makura no sshi describe the blooming
peach trees associated with the third day of the Third Month because peach trees were thought to dispel
evil spirits (see Hirose, 1978, 148 for a complete explanation).
Genji monogatari explains that on the fifth day of the Fifth Month, Gifts of medicinal herbs in
decorative packets came from this and that well-wisher (Murasaki Shikibu, 1976, 434), a reference to

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