六曜 ROKUYO – Lucky and Unlucky Days in Japan

The history of the Japanese calendar is fascinating. Since 800 AD, Japan used a seven day week, with names for the days corresponding directly to those used in Europe. This system was used for astrological purposes and little else until 1876, shortly after Japan officially adopted the Western calendar. After that date, they became the official names for the days of the week.

The seven day names were simply from the Chinese philosophies of yin-yang, plus the five Taoist elements: fire, water, wood, metal, and earth.

Sunday - nichi-youbi (yang - sun) Monday - getsu-youbi (yin - moon) Tuesday - ka-youbi (fire) Wednesday - sui-youbi (water) Thursday - moku-youbi (wood) Friday - kin-youbi (metal/gold) Saturday - dou-youbi (earth)

Yang and Yin 5 elements

Although the seven days have been used in Japan for around 1,200 years, until the nineteenth century they also had a parallel six-day system, which had more effect on daily life than the seven-day astrological system. (Hey! Let's go back to that system; abolish Mondays!) These six days were known as Rokuyo (roku - six, yo - day) and were based on superstition of good and bad luck. Rokuyo no longer forms part of the official calendar in Japan, but this aspect of the old lunar calendar has survived and many Japanese calendars today show rokuyo information in small print.

Each Rokuyo day has a name and an associated meaning, as shown in the following table:

The days basically follow the cycle from Sakigachi to Shakku, as listed in the above table. There are exceptions to this because the first days of certain months in the old lunar calendar are always assigned the same Rokuyo day:

In January 1873, despite incredible turmoil going on at the time, Japan changed from the lunar system to the solar (Gregorian) calendar system as part of their plan to trade more easily with the West.

In addition to adopting the western calendar, they changed the length of the 'hours'. This was an incredibly brave move and something that few would seriously contemplate today (except perhaps for proponents of the Metric or Decimalized Time system). Before 1873, Japan used an interesting time system based on a 'day', starting at dawn, and a 'night', starting at sunset. The 'day' was sub-divided into six equal-length 'hours', and the 'night' was sub-divided into six equal-length 'hours'. As the seasons stretched the days or nights, the length of these 'hours' was constantly changing. Accurately altering the regulator on early clocks every couple of weeks was a nightmare and was quite a challenge for the early clockmakers. (Did people really use their pulse for finer time-measurement?) All that changed in 1873, and a few years later, young Kintaro Hattori established K Hattori & Co., Ltd., the predecessor of what became the Seiko Corporation.

These exciting developments made little difference to most people however; farming continued to be governed by the unofficial ancient solar calendar developed by Chinese astronomers, the seasons and the weather, and of course trains on the newly opened Tokyo to Yokohama rail link continued to run on time.

For its international commercial image however, these changes brought Japan right up to date with the rest of the world.

But the superstitions based on 'time' remained. Few Japanese would admit to serious belief of the system now, but the 'better be safe than sorry' attitude is common when arranging a ceremony. And perhaps the most significantly affected is the wedding ceremony.

(See also our page on Western-style Weddings in Japan)

Traditionally, following the table above, Taian is the most popular day to tie the knot, and Butsumetsu is the least popular. However, in the current uncertain economy, money has become a significant factor in deciding the best day for a wedding.

Due to the passing of the baby boom of 25-30 years ago, fewer people will reach the marrying age in the foreseeable future. Therefore wedding companies face the double problem of a shrinking market and an economy that has been weak since the 90s. In response, many companies today are offering a special discount to people who use their services on a Butsumetsu day. This incentive has had the effect that the peaks and troughs seen in a typical wedding week a few years ago are now levelling off. The cost of offering the incentive is more than made up by the efficiency gained in the more balanced use of resources throughout the week.

Those who choose to marry on a Butsumetsu that is also Friday the 13th, are more likely interested in saving money, rather than being superstitious.

(See also Lucky Horseshoe)

Tomobiki is bad news for funerals. Tomobiki signifies good luck except at noon, but it also translates as pulling a friend. It conjures the image of being pulled into death to go with your friend. If a funeral really must take place on that day, a doll is sometimes placed in the coffin so that it, and not a friend or attendant, can be dragged to the next life.

Any day other than tomobiki suitable. A funeral on Butsumetsu gives many people a little extra comfort.

No sane superstitious (now there's an oxymoron!) person would consider agreeing to surgery on Butsumetsu.

People also consider Rokuyo, when being discharged from a hospital1. The unlucky day Butsumetsu often precedes the lucky day Taian. Rather than risk discharge on an unlucky day, often patients extend their stay by an extra 24 hours to be discharged on Taian. This may sound quaint, but a consequence is an increased cost of medical care in Japan. A relatively small increase of course, but given the billions of yen cost of medical care in Japan, this extra astrologically inspired cost has astronomical proportions.

A similar phenomenon affects Western hospitals, with patients avoiding surgery on Friday the 13th.

The financial cost of such delays and extended stays is calculable. Not so calculable are the psychological costs suffered if hospitals try to persuade patients to ignore a superstition.

1 Acknowledgement to Hira K, Fukui T, Endoh A, Rahman M, Maekawa M. "Influence of superstition on the date of hospital discharge and medical cost in Japan: retrospective and descriptive study." British Medical Journal 1998; 317:1680-3.

Should the days of Rokuyo concern the Western businessman negotiating with Japanese? Well, there is plenty of evidence that Japanese businessmen do consider superstitions when they are making choices. Look, for example, at the popular story of the largest Japanese car maker. The company started with the owner's name, Toyoda, but gave the launch an extra bit of luck by naming the company Toyota. And that is luckier because to spell Toyota using katakana, you use eight pen strokes. (トヨタ) and eight is a lucky number. Silly? Maybe. But Toyota has been pretty successful over the years.

Do Japanese businessmen consider superstitious days? Can we examine how they behave and use this information to model our own behaviour and improve our chances?

Here are a few clues:

• Japanese commercial and domestic construction projects often start on Taian
• Companies delay opening a new or refurbished branch office until Taian
• Office moves are scheduled for Taian
• Butsumetsu is avoided for a new product launch
• Electric power companies in Japan report to the Ministry of Economy and Industry every time they change their charging rates, always on Taian.

However these examples are about as far as it goes.

If you are about to do business with a Japanese company, don't fret about lunar calendars at the expense of improving the quality of the product or service you are trying to sell. Our overall recommendation is to not worry about Rokuyo. As with the popular discounts offered to couples to marry on Butsumetsu, business is about money, and the opportunity for profit tends to be a much more powerful influence than superstition.

Despite the apparent large number of Japanese tourists, many Japanese workers traditionally don't take all their annual leave entitlement. So when the office closes for a National Holiday in Japan, those days are especially precious. Try to arrange a tele-conference call on a Japanese national holiday and see how quickly you lose favour with your Japanese customers.

The end of the baby boom could itself be the result of a superstition. Hinoe-Uma is a calendar event that occurs every 60 years.

more...;

Phillip Riley's Japanese superstitions
Tom Gally's Rokuyo page
'Time' in old Japan
The origin of the English names we use for days, months and seasons