Supervised by Ms.M
Affiliation: KARASU CHANNEL
Traditions studied: 12+ (Western astrology, Four Pillars of Destiny, Nine Star Ki, tarot, runes, palmistry & physiognomy, name numerology, numerology, feng shui, Vedic astrology / Zi Wei, Onmyodo, spiritual reading, and more)
Personal readings: by request via Contact,
currently booked years out
Read about Rokuyo
About this reading: The Rokuyou is a uniquely Japanese calendar notation cycling through six labels — Sensho, Tomobiki, Senbu, Butsumetsu, Taian, and Shakkou. Originally derived from a Chinese calendar system, it took its distinctly Japanese form between the Muromachi and Edo periods. Taian (a day good for anything) and Butsumetsu (a day considered unfavorable for anything) in particular are still widely consulted today when setting the date for a wedding or a funeral.
The Rokuyou is fixed not by the Gregorian date but by the month and day of the old lunisolar calendar: add the lunar month and day, divide by 6, and the remainder gives the label (lunar 1/1 and 7/1 are Sensho, 2/1 and 8/1 Tomobiki, 3/1 and 9/1 Senbu, 4/1 and 10/1 Butsumetsu, 5/1 and 11/1 Taian, 6/1 and 12/1 Shakkou; a leap month is treated like the month before it). This site works out the lunisolar date the way the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan describes it: the day of the new moon in Japan Standard Time starts a month, and the twenty-four solar terms (the "chuki") name it. Dates from 1900 to 2100 are supported. The years 2033 to 2034 fall under the "2033 problem", where the placement of the leap month cannot be settled uniquely; this site calculates with the option that puts the winter-solstice month as month 11. When choosing a date for a wedding or similar event, please always check with the venue or a printed calendar.
Rokuyou still gets consulted for wedding and funeral dates today not because it's a scientifically proven system of lucky and unlucky days, but because so many people share the same calendar that being mindful of it has long functioned as a kind of social courtesy toward those who do care. As we see it here, the practical value here has less to do with whether you personally believe in it, and more with simply knowing that someone important to you might.
Lore column: Shakkou Is Lucky Only at Noon: The Demon in the Rokuyou and How Butsumetsu Got Its Name
A short read on the legends and strange tales around this reading, with this site's own view.
Of the six Rokuyou days, Shakkou is the one whose reading few people even know. Only the hours around noon are said to be lucky; the rest of the day is unlucky, and people have been told to take special care with fire, blades and injury. The character for red in its name is also said to evoke fire and blood.
One theory traces it to Shakuzetsu-nichi, an unlucky day in Onmyodo. There is also a tale that a red-tongued god, Shakuzetsujin, guards a gate, and that the day when his demon underlings run wild became a day of misfortune. Meanwhile Butsumetsu, the best-known unlucky day of the Rokuyou, is said to have been called Kubou at first, then Kyobou, then Butsumetsu written as "things perish," before settling on its current characters. It has nothing to do with Buddhism; it meant "the day things are destroyed."
Each time the sound of a name shifted, the image people held of that day was repainted a little.
In this site's view, the changing names of the Rokuyou show people adding fear to words. This is speculation, but when "things perish" came to be written with the character for Buddha, people may have read into it a deeper dread: a day when even the Buddha perishes. The demon of Shakkou and the Buddha of Butsumetsu are the unease of calendar readers given form, and their terror may dwell less in the calendar than in the hearts of those who read it.
Add this to your favorites to find it again anytime from your My Page.