The Lunisolar Calendar: a Sociology of Japanese Time

The Lunisolar Calendar: A Sociology of Japanese Time

Jessica Kennett Cork

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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 Gándara (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 kyūreki, 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 society‟s 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 Doggett‟s (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 Shōtoku Taishi in the seventh century, Empress Shōtoku in the eighth century, and the

Tokugawa Shōgunate 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 government‟s 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 Tempō 15 (1844), a prime example of a

5 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).

① The first line of the calendar indicates that the calendar was made in Ise Watari-gun

Yamada, present day Ise City in Mie Prefecture.

② Yamaguchi Uhei, the name of the publisher.

③ Since Tempō 15 was the first year that the Tempō 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.

④ The calendar year is expressed both by era name (fifteenth year of the Tempō 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 Japanese reading Element 甲 Kō Kinoe1 Wood 乙 Otsu Kinoto 丙 Hei Hinoe Fire 丁 Tei Hinoto 戊 Bo Tsuchinoe Earth 己 Ki Tsuchinoto 庚 Kō Kanoe Metal 辛 Shin Kanoto 壬 Jin Mizunoe Water 癸 Ki Mizunoto

1 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 yáng, or positive, essence and to is the yīn, or negative essence (Ichinoe, 1913, 53). 8

Twelve Branches

Chinese Chinese Japanese Associated solar Animal Month Direction Element character reading reading stem Ele- Tōji “Winter 子 Shi Ne Rat venth North (0°) Water solstice” Month Daikan North- Twelfth 丑 Chū Ushi Ox “Greater northeast Earth Month cold” (30°) East- Usui “Rain First 寅 In Tora Tiger northeast Wood and water” Month (60°) Shunbun Second 卯 Bō U Rabbit “Vernal East (90°) Wood Month equinox” East- Koku-u Third 辰 Shin Tatsu Dragon southeast Earth “Grain rain” Month (120°) Shōman South- “Initial Fourth 巳 Shi Mi Snake southeast Fire filling of the Month (150°) grain” Geshi Fifth 午 Go Uma Horse “Summer South (180°) Fire Month solstice” Taisho South- Sixth 未 Mi Hitsuji Sheep “Greater southwest Earth Month heat” (210°) Shosho West- Mon- Seventh 申 Shin Saru “Cessation of southwest Metal key Month heat” (240°) Shūbun “Autum- Eighth 酉 Yū Tori Cock West (270°) Metal nal Month equinox” West- Sōkō “Frost Ninth 戌 Jutsu Inu Dog northwest Earth descends” Month (300°) North- Shōsetsu Tenth 亥 Gai I Boar northwest Water “Light snow” Month (330°)

The Sexagenary Cycle

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 甲子乙丑丙寅丁卯戊辰己巳庚午辛未壬申癸酉 kinoe- kinoto- hinoe- hinoto- tsuchi- tsuchi- kanoe- kano- mizuno mizu- ne ushi tora u noe- noto- uma to- e-saru noto- tatsu mi hitsuji tori 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 甲戌乙亥丙子丁丑戊寅己卯庚辰辛巳壬午癸未 kinoe- kinoto- hinoe- hinoto- tsuchi- tsuchi- kanoe- kano- mizuno mizu- inu i ne ushi noe- noto-u tatsu to-mi e-uma noto- tora hitsuji 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 甲申乙酉丙戌丁亥戊子己丑庚寅辛卯壬辰癸巳 kinoe- kinoto- hinoe- hinoto- tsuchi- tsuchi- kanoe- kano- mizuno mizu- saru tori inu i noe-ne noto- tora to-u e-tatsu noto- ushi mi 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 甲午乙未丙申丁酉戊戌己亥庚子辛丑壬寅癸卯 kinoe- kinoto- hinoe- hinoto- tsuchi- tsuchi- kanoe- kano- mizuno mizu- uma hitsuji saru tori noe- noto-i ne to-ushi e-tora noto- inu u 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 甲辰乙巳丙午丁未戊申己酉庚戌辛亥壬子癸丑 kinoe- kinoto- hinoe- hinoto- tsuchi- tsuchi- kanoe- kano- mizuno mizu- tatsu mi uma hitsuji noe- noto- inu to-i e-ne noto- saru tori ushi 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 甲寅乙卯丙辰丁巳戊午己未庚申辛酉壬戌癸亥 kinoe- kinoto- hinoe- hinoto- tsuchi- tsuchi- kanoe- kano- mizuno mizu- tora u tatsu mi noe- noto- saru to-tori e-inu noto-i uma hitsuji

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 one‟s 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).

⑤ The name of the calendar, “Tempō jin’in genreki.” The sexagenary cycle designation “jin’in” was added to the calendar name to distinguish it from a calendar of the same name that had existed in China (Yabuuchi, 1943, 454).

⑥ This line gives the year‟s 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 Kōbō-daishi

(774-835) (Nagata, 1989, 144). Several classical texts mention the Twenty-eight Lunar

Mansions. In Makura no sōshi (1002; tr. The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon), Sei Shōnagon lists one of the most well-known mansions, Subaruboshi, the “hairy head mansion” (πTauri), in her list of stars (Matsuda, 1987, 192). In Tsurezuregusa (1332; tr. Essays in Idleness), Yoshida

Kenkō (1967, 198) describes the particularly bright Tataraboshi, the “bond mansion,” (β

Arietis) as a good backdrop for viewing the full moon.

⑦ This notation explains that Tempō 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 wakashū (ca. 905; Anthology of Past and

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,

Ōshikōchi Mitsune, 1985, 25).

⑧ 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 Onmyōdō, “the way of yīn and yáng,” a method of divination adopted in Japan during Emperor Tenmu‟s reign

(673-686) that combined the Chinese principles of yīn and yáng, the Five Elements, and the sexagenary cycle with Shintō rituals such as purification and defilement (Butler, 1996, 191).

By the Heian period (794-1185), Onmyōdō 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

Kagerō 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” (Michitsuna‟s 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 can‟t 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.

⑨ Daijōgun will rule the direction of the rat, or north. This direction will be taboo for three years starting in the current year.

⑩ Daion will rule the direction of the tiger, or east-northeast. Giving birth in this direction should be avoided.

⑪ 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).

⑫ This section, in purple, explains that the akikata, the year‟s auspicious direction ruled by the year goddess Toshitoku, is between the direction of the tiger (east-northeast) and the direction of the hare (east). Hatsumōde, the first shrine visit of New Year, derives from the custom of ehō-mairi, in which one would visit a Shintō shrine or Buddhist temple that was located in the year‟s 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).

⑬ 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 Tempō 15.

⑭ Saikyō will rule the direction of the dragon (east-southeast). Seeds should not be sown facing this direction.

⑮ Saiba will rule the direction of the dog (west-northwest). One should neither travel nor board a ship in this direction.

⑯ Saisetsu will rule the direction of the sheep (south-southwest). One should not receive one‟s bride from this direction.

⑰ Wauban will rule the direction of the dragon (east-southeast). It is lucky to shoot an arrow in this direction.

⑱ Hyōbi will rule the direction of the dog (west-northwest). One must not urinate, defecate, or buy livestock in this direction.

⑲ 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

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

B) Saisetsu resides in the sheep direction (south-southwest).

C) Saiba and Hyōbi reside in the direction of the dog (west-northwest).

D) The term fusakari, “to occupy,” indicates that Daijōgun 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, Saikyō, 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.

⑳ This section, in blue, explains that the god Dokōjin 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 Dokōjin was in residence (Morris, 1964, 138). In Sarashina nikki (early eleventh century; tr. As I Crossed a

Bridge of Dreams), Lady Sarashina refers to Dokōjin‟s curse, writing, “Towards the end of the

Third Month I moved into a friend‟s house to escape the Earth God” (Sugawara, 1971, 49).

㉑ 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).

㉒ From this section onward, all notations refer to individual months. The First Month is a thirty-day month.

㉓ This is the First Month‟s sexagenary cycle. The month‟s Celestial Stem is determined by its prescribed pairing with the year‟s Celestial Stem. Since Tempō 15 is a kinoe year, the First Month‟s Celestial Stem must be hinoe. Notice that the Celestial Stem for the

Second Month, hinoto, follows in sequence. The month‟s 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).

㉔ The First Month‟s lunar mansion is Kakushuku, the “horn mansion.”

㉕ 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. The Western seven-day week first appeared in

China during the Táng Dynasty (618-907) (Matsumura, 2002, 71) and was brought to Japan in

806 by Buddhist monk Kōbō-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 Jōkyō 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).

㉖ This section contains rekichū, or calendar notations, for each day of the month. The upper tier contains the date written in Chinese characters and the sexagenary cycle and

Jūnichoku written in Japanese script. The Jūnichoku 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 day‟s 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 Jūnichoku 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 Northern Time of the Japanese English hemisphere Visible month visibility 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 1 journey around the earth (Hirose, 1978, 16). Not visible N/A moon Shingetsu can also refer to the moon on the second day of the month, Futsukazuki, when a thin crescent is visible.

Waxing Afternoon 3 Mikazuki, “Third-day moon.” crescent Right 1-49% and moon post-dusk Jōgen no tsuki, “Upward bow moon,” so First Afternoon 7 called because when it sets, the drawn-bow quarter Right 50% and early shape faces upward; Hangetsu, “Half moon.” moon night Jūsanyazuki, “Thirteenth night moon.” The Waxing Afternoon 13 Ninth Month Jūsanyazuki is thought gibbous Right 51-99% and most especially beautiful. moon of night 14 Komochizuki, “Little full moon.” Full Sunset to 15 Mangetsu or Mochizuki, “Full moon.” Fully visible moon sunrise Izayoizuki, “Hesitating moon.” After sunset, 16 it seems to hesitate in the twilight before rising. Tachimachizuki, “Standing and waiting 17 moon.” Waning Most of gibbous Left 51-99% night and Imachizuki. Even later to rise, this is the 18 moon morning “sitting and waiting moon.” 19 Nemachizuki, “Sleeping and waiting moon.” Fukemachizuki, “Waiting late into the night 20 moon.” Last Late night Kagen no tsuki, “Lower bowstring moon.” 22-23 quarter Left 50% and Nijūsanyazuki, “Twenty-third day moon.” moon morning Waning Pre-dawn 24-28 N/A crescent Left 1-49% and moon morning Misokazuki, “dark day moon,” when the 29 or Dark Last visible Before moon is no longer visible. This is the origin 30 moon crescent sunrise of the word Ōmisoka for New Year‟s Eve. (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 Monzaemon‟s Daikyōji 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. Ishun‟s wife, Osan, overhears her husband making a pass at the maidservant, Otama, and goes to sleep in Otama‟s room in an attempt to prevent Ishun‟s philandering. On the same night, Mohei, grateful to Otama for covering up a crime he had committed, visits Otama‟s room. With no moonlight to guide him, he doesn‟t 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).

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, Tō no Chūjō 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 wakashū:

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

20 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 father‟s 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 Chōshū and Tosa clans escape attack. The fifth day crescent moon would already have set at dusk.

㉗ 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.

㉘ 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). The annual Zassetsu are as follows:

2010 Name Meaning Date Gregorian Calendar Doyō Earth period, a fifth season inserted by Eighteen or January 17

the Chinese in order to apply the five nineteen day April 17 elements to the four seasons. Spring period before the July 20 was wood, summer was fire, autumn lunisolar calendar October 20 was metal, and winter was water. start of spring, summer, fall, and winter. Setsubun Division between winter and spring. Day before February 3 Risshun, “the inception of spring.” Higan Buddhist festival memorializing Three days before March 18-24 deceased ancestors. and after the vernal September and autumnal 20-26 equinoxes. Shanichi Earth god festival to pray for a The closest March 19 bountiful harvest. tsuchinoe day to September 25 the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. Hachijūhachi-ya Ideal day for picking tea. Eighty-eighth day May 2 after Risshun, “the inception of spring.” Nyūbai Beginning of the rainy season. First mizunoe day June 11 after Bōshu, “Grain seeds with awn.” Hangeshō Farmers avoided planting seeds after Eleventh day after July 2 this day, on which it was believed a the summer poisonous air would blow. solstice. Nihyakutooka Day around which typhoons are 210th day after September 1 concentrated. Risshun, “the inception of spring.”

(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 yáng days of the first day of the First Month, the third day of the

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 Yáng 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 wakashū, 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 Michitsuna‟s Mother

(1990, 111) in Kagerō nikki and Sei Shōnagon (1967, 24) in Makura no sōshi 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