What is rokuyō?

1.The six days

Almanacs explain the hours slightly differently. Most say Tomobiki is unlucky from about 11:00 to 13:00.

Butsumetsu, “death of the Buddha”, is said to have originally been written 物滅, “destruction of things”, and to have nothing to do with Buddhism.

2.How the rokuyō are set

The rokuyō depend on the month and day of the old lunisolar calendar. The first day of each lunar month (the new moon) always starts on a set rokuyō.

From the 2nd day on, the cycle runs Senshō → Tomobiki → Senbu → Butsumetsu → Taian → Shakkō, and it resets to the value above when the lunar month changes. A leap month starts with the same rokuyō as the month before it.

That is why the sequence sometimes skips on a modern calendar: when the lunar month changes, it jumps back to its fixed starting point. You can see today’s rokuyō in today’s calendar.

3.How old are they?

The rokuyō are thought to come from a Chinese method of telling lucky hours (xiao liuren) that reached Japan between the late Kamakura and the Muromachi periods (around the 14th century). Their present names and order are said to date from the late Edo period, around the first half of the 19th century (opinions differ). They were always a feature of popular almanacs. With the calendar reform announced in 1872 and brought in in 1873, almanac notes were removed from the official calendar, but they lived on in unofficial almanacs, and they only appeared widely on ordinary calendars after the Second World War. Because their history is fairly short, some people dismiss them as baseless superstition.

4.Weddings, funerals and the rokuyō

• Weddings and registering a marriage: Taian is by far the most popular. Tomobiki days and the mornings of Senshō days are also chosen. Some venues charge less on Butsumetsu, and more and more couples don’t mind it.
• Funerals: Tomobiki is written “pulling friends”, so funerals are avoided on it. In some areas the crematorium is closed on Tomobiki.
• Hospital visits, new cars, moving house: many people choose Taian, while others feel it is enough just to avoid Butsumetsu.

The rokuyō are usually combined with other lucky days. The lucky day calendars list days when Taian, Tenshabi and Ichiryū-manbai-bi coincide. See types of lucky days for the other lucky days, and Doyō for the cautions at the turn of each season.