Fact check

A belief in something doesn't make it a fact, and a belief doesn't need factual evidence in order for it to exist and be powerful.

Take astrology, for example. (Please take it, because we don't want it.)

Some refer to it as science, some as pseudoscience, and some consider it religion. Whatever it is, astrology suffers the same basic problems as Rokuyo.

Credibility?

Questions of credibility apply to both astrology and Rokuyo; a system compiled by some ancient sages who may, or may not, have been enlightened and in touch with equally ancient deities or other supernatural entities. The credibility of Rokuyo depends on how accurate those sages were about understanding which lunar calendar to use and at what date to start the very first six-day cycle.

Equally important is which part of each of the six days should be lucky, and which not.

And then we need to remember that the order of Rokuyo days changed after the Tokugawa period. Ooops!

Faithworthy?

Mainstream religions such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, etc, can rely on ancient texts which have been exhaustively studied and rigorously tested over the centuries. Those sacred texts provide, amongst other things, wisdom, moral commandments and ethical conduct, give spiritual aspirations and divine revelations. It's easy to understand why people believe in a supreme God and have faith.

Rokuyo, in contrast, doesn't even pretend to be a religion; it's just a set of superstitions that it will be to be lucky, or unlucky, or neither lucky nor unlucky, at certain times of the day on a particular phase of the moon.

The plain fact is that the fortune of a day doesn't depend on what the Rokuyo day is, but rather on how each individual spends the day. It differs from person to person.

Trustworthy?

Somebody emailed us recently, asking which Rokuyo day it was on their wedding date, twelve years ago. They're now divorcing and wondered if their marriage failed because their wedding was on the 'wrong' day. It's useful to be able to put the blame on somebody or something else when things go wrong. Similarly when things go right, it's tempting to say "That proves Rokuyo / astrology / tea-leaf-reading works!"

When a couple fall in love and marry, the success of their marriage largely depends on what they put into the relationship. If instead, they trust their future on Rokuyo, then they only have themselves to blame if things go awry.

But the attraction of Rokuyo is understandable to a certain extent. As with astrology, Rokuyo is mysterious. For a start, it's from the East with a fuzzy ancient history. And partly because it's exotic, some people fall into the trap of believing there's something in it.

Luck

Luck is a relative concept. Probably like you, I'm incredibly lucky today because I live in country with a living standard that's much more comfortable than the majority of other people in the world. But also today I accidentally dropped my phone and the screen broke. So is today lucky for me, or unlucky?

We also need to remember that in many cases, luck should only be considered 'good' in a win-win situation. For example, consider the start of a business venture on a Sensho morning, which succeeds but hurts the competitor. That would both good and bad luck; a conflict for the Rokuyo day.

Similarly with sporting events, where most matches result in winners and losers. A win-win situation would be something like breaking a personal-best record running a marathon or lifting a heavier weight.

Sensho is also favoured for those summoned to appear court, but again, in many cases there are victims and perpetrators. A win-win situation could be a successful acquittal of a so-called 'victimless crime' or an amnesty from a crime that society now agrees is outdated and should be abolished.

Gambling at a casino in the morning of Sensho is always good luck. It's good luck for you if you win, and much more likely good luck for the casino when you lose!

Evidence

Collecting evidence to support or refute Rokuyo is easy. Just recall some momentous events in your life and check the date on the Rokuyo calendar. For me, one momentous day was when I got married. That was a lucky Taian day and I've been happily married for several decades. My wife, however, might say marrying me was bad luck!

Another momentous event was on an unlucky Butsumetsu day when I was walking down a road on a bitterly cold winter's day and saw a heavily pregnant woman in trouble as she was about to give birth. Unluckily for her, the only person nearby (me!) had no medical training or experience to help deliver the baby. This was the time before mobile phones existed and it took a long time for professonal help to arrive. It really couldn't have been a better match Butsumetsu, and yet luckily the baby girl not only survived, but grew up perfectly well. (She's now married with three lovely children - all delivered in a maternity ward.) Despite the odds, she was incredibly lucky.

Let's look at seven real world famous catastrophies this century :

• Terrorist attack in New York on 11 September 2001. Rokuyo day: shakku. Bad luck all day (except at noon), which seems to support the Rokuyo pattern. And yet this was very good news for the people who orchestrated the attack. So the 'support' for Rokuyo can be rather subjective.
• Tsunami in Asia on 26 December 2004. Rokuyo day: Sakigachi. Good luck in the morning, bad luck in the afternoon. Oh dear... The earthquake that created the tsunami occurred at 7:59 in the morning and therefore doesn't fit in well with Rokuyo. Let's look at another example:
• Hurricane Katrina smashed into Louisiana on 29 August 2005 and claimed 1,836 lives. Rokuyo day was again, Sakigachi: good luck in the morning. Well, the hurricane made landfall in the morning, so there's another incongruity for Rokuyo.
• Cyclone Nargis on 2 May 2008 was much more devastating. 146,000 deaths officially recorded before the government stopped counting and thousands more people are still missing, presumed dead. And the Rokuyo day? Lucky Taian!
• The 2010 Haiti earthquake was on 12 January 2010. This was a Tomobiki day, which is supposed to be good luck all day, except at noon. But an earthquake is no respecter of time and struck at 4:53 p.m. It is estimated that over 300,000 people died.
• The Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded at 21:56 on 20 April 2010. Eleven people were killed and many injured. The subsequent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is now considered the largest environmental calamity in US history. The Rokuyo calendar shows it was Sakimake, which is supposed to bring good fortune in the afternoon. It didn't.
• Finally, returning to Rokuyo's home here in Japan, the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. This killed thousands and led to a tsunami, which killed thousands more. The earthquake also caused one of the world's biggest radiation leaks from the Fukushima nuclear power station. The earthquake struck on 11 March 2011, another Tomobiki day, which is supposed to unlucky only at noon. The magnitude 9 earthquake struck at 2:46 p.m. and the resulting 15-metre-high tsunami reached the shores a few hours later, wiping towns and villages off the map.

Three years later, Russia began invading Ukraine on 27 February 2014, Butsumetsu. That was certainly a bad day for Ukraine, and also a bad day for Russia which began its rapid descent towards being the world's most despised country. So does that give support for the notion that Butsumetsu is a 'bad luck' day?

No – quite the opposite!

For the shareholders of matériel suppliers, the invasion was and is extremely 'good luck'. (Not to mention the hundreds of scam websites that always spring up within days of any disaster to siphon donations given for relief efforts.)

We mentioned Cyclone Nargis, a disastrous day on 'lucky' Taian. Was there any good fortune from that calamity? Well, the government did become more open to foreign aid since the disaster, but little else to support the notion that Taian had any good luck for the nation. Many people will never recover and yet some Western companies will benefit from piecemeal reconstruction.

And that brings us to the point we are trying to make:

Everybody wants to have good luck and fortune – it's in our sorry greedy nature. But often good fortune for one person means a penalty for somebody else.

Isn't astrology or Rokuyo just a bit of innocent fun?

Well, it may be, but taking such pseudoscience seriously can have tragic consequences.

Consider how many people have consulted Chinese astrology to determine the sex of an unborn child, and aborted the baby if the result was undesirable. Accuracy of an astrological prediction of a baby's sex is at best only 50%.

And what if the child later becomes pansexual? 

Please enjoy these Rokuyo pages, but put no faith in the system. Rokuyo, invented by some unknown philosophers and sages hundreds of years ago, is no match for the power you can generate within yourself to change your life. Be assured that you will get much more benefit in life by putting faith in yourself, your family, your friends, and of course, your God.

(This page was updated on 6 June 2006. That's 6/6/6, supposedly the mark of the Devil. And yet nothing unusually bad or demonic happened for the world on that day...)