The following is translation of extracts from Rokuyo superstition and action to eliminate discrimination, a compilation based on the writings of Professor Tadahiko Hae of Kumamoto Gakuen University about the relationship between Rokuyo and discrimination, published in the magazine Buraku Liberation. )You can see the original (Japanese) here (PDF file).
The well-known saying, "If you tell a lie, King Enma will cut out your tongue". The problem is that all you need to do is to acquire the norm that "It's wrong to lie". But if you just hear the saying, it becomes engraved in your mind (or is imprinted by parents or others). (Note: King Enma is mentioned in the Ten Kings Sutra.)
In a world where discrimination and being treated differently have become commonplace, it is not enough to just learn how to behave in such a way. They are also expected to acquire a historical perspective that sees human history as a history of discrimination rather than a history of liberation from discrimination.
In our lives, there are many such unintended consequences of learning and education. In order to acquire the strength to take action to eliminate Buraku discrimination, it is necessary for us to make efforts to correct prejudice and discrimination in our daily lives. Through casual customs, people who are subjected to many forms of discrimination, such as discrimination against women, discrimination against people with disabilities, and racial discrimination, can see they are being discriminated against.
However, the Buraku people who have been discriminated against can only see that they are in a position of discrimination if they acknowledge, declare, or expose it themselves. Therefore, their ancestors were considered to have a "filthier status", and were forced to wear signs to identify them. (Restrictions on kimono, restrictions on obi, wearing of fur pieces, etc.) We have already seen how bravely they continued to fight against the unreasonable treatment in order to reject the signs and at the same time practice liberation. Even though it has been more than 120 years since they were released from being forced to wear visible marks, some people are still labelled as discriminated against because they live in discriminated Buraku communities, avoiding or refusing marriage, relationships, etc.
Some parents are opposed to their children marrying a Burakumin, which not only restricts their children's freedom of association, but also takes away their precious lives. This is one reason why discriminators are using more sophisticated background checks, and employment discrimination such as a person's address occurs. People who unconsciously follow the custom of conducting background checks because everyone has done it since ancient times, and even today.
Buraku people are discriminated against because they are said to be unclean. In this way, when someone says something, not only can we not explain why it is wrong, but we tend to memorize it.
We perpetuate the custom of sprinkling purifying salt after funerals, perpetuating the discriminatory concept of purity. In order to always be pure, it becomes necessary to purify impurity.
Unless we see through the discrimination and prejudice hidden in customs and have no rational basis, and acquire the ability to eliminate them, Buraku discrimination will continue. Actions supported by the United Nations to eliminate the various other types of discrimination, may not progress. To this end, we must eliminate customs that discriminate, discriminatory ideas and ideologies, and customs that perpetuate prejudice. This means that each individual must steadily move forward in the workplace and in the community.
Most notebooks and calendars still proudly include Rokuyo. For weddings and auspicious events it must be Taian, for funerals to mustn't be Tomobiki, and when an accident occurs, it's Butsumetsu. These are the standards of judgment, as if it were a matter of course. The fortune-telling superstition Rokuyo is widespread among men and women of all ages, and even though they say they don't believe in it, they follow it. In fact, wedding ceremonies are overwhelmingly held on Taian, and Taian on a Sunday are considered to be very popular, and there are countless examples of funeral halls being closed on Tomobiki.
The official decision to change the old calendar to the new one was made on 9 November 1872, by a law called the Daijokan Decree (No. 337). The situation was so hectic because there was less than a month between the promulgation of the law and the actual calendar change. Since it was the end of the year, the calendar for the next year had already been printed had to be scrapped.
However, the new Meiji government had a reason for the rush. The incoming year of 1896 was a leap year, and because of the leap month, there were 13 months in the year. The salary payment for government officials had already been changed from an annual system to a monthly salary, so they would have to be paid 13 times in 1896. This was a problem for the new Meiji government which had financial troubles.
Switching to the solar calendar meant there were only two days in December of the 5th year of Meiji due to the difference between the old and new calendars. So the monthly salary for December became January's salary. The calendar change killed two birds with one stone.
Interestingly, the Rokuyo part of the lunar calendar survived, showing the morally ignoble nature of Japanese people with a spiritual culture that believes in superstitions and is happy and sad when playing around with numbers.
The attempt to banish Rokuyo from the calendar began in 1979 in Fukuoka and began as a movement in Nomi, Hiroshima Prefecture, and has since slowly but surely spread. JA Tamba [a shop selling agricultural and livestock products in Tamba] removed Rokuyo from its calendar, and on 1 April 2002 the Sasayama City Funeral Hall and Yokohama City Funeral Hall even though it was Tomobiki.
Rokuyo is explained as follows.
| Sensho | The sooner the better, the worse from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. |
| Tomobiki | Only noon is bad luck, morning and evening are very good luck, and rituals should be avoided. |
| Sakimake | It's good luck to be quiet on this day, bad luck in the morning, good luck in the afternoon. |
| Butsumetsu | Everything is bad. If I get sick on this day, it will last for a long time. |
| Taian | An auspicious day for weddings, travel, relocation, starting new things and everything else. |
| Shakku | A bad day for anything. Only midday is good luck. |
Where is the rationale for this explanation? Meanings not based on facts are nothing, can confuse people's minds and reduce their ability to judge things correctly.
Now an increasing number of temples and monks deny the obsession with Rokuyo and superstitions, including Tomobiki, as it is unrelated to faith and a hindrance to faith. But the number is still small and the more they deny Rokuyo, the more they are treated as unconventional.
In Rokuyo, Sensho is on the 1st day of the first month of lunar calendar, Tomobiki is on 1st day of the second month of lunar calendar, Sakimake on the third, Butsumetsu on the fourth, Taian on the fifth, Shakku on the sixth, and then the seventh month repeats the sequence. The cycle terminates on the last day of the month. (The calculation formula will be explained later.)
The Rokuyo currently in circulation is similar to, but different from, the one introduced from China in the Muromachi period, and is said to have been created in the middle of the Edo period, around the Kyoho period.
Taian, which is often referred to as the 'wedding day', was called Taian in China, and Hoan during the Kyoho period. Tomobiki seems to have been between Sakimake and Sensho, but it was also expressed as Ruren or Ryuren. Also there was a time when Butsumetsu was referred to as Monometsu, and also expressed as Kudo or Kodo. I don't know what it means, but it was written in the Meiji era.
Apparently a publisher of a fortune-telling book changed the name to Butsumetsu, which is the most representative example of such nonsense. Contrary to the concept of time and the history of humans who created the calendar, it is nothing more than a careless label placed on time and day.
At the same time as this facileness and carelessness, Rokuyo superstition is:
The Rokuyo superstition has continued to spread. Despite the prohibition by the Edict to Reform the Calendar and the Daijōkan Edict in the 5th year of the Meiji era (1872), and even today in the age of science, people's anxiety is used as energy to create Rokuyo.
Fortune-telling and superstitions continue to live on. Not only that, but it continues to undermine the foundations of faith and scientific rational thinking. It continues to control us as a ghost that dwells in our very roots, perpetuating and promoting discrimination. Discrimination based on birth, including Buraku discrimination. It is discrimination based on unalterable conditions that are given to individuals by fate, so it creates a barbaric, violent, narrow, and stagnant spiritual and intellectual world.
We who allow Buraku discrimination to exist are also the ones who follow fortune-telling and superstitions such as Rokuyo, blood type, location, family background, and ancestry.
We aim to take concrete actions in our daily lives to eliminate Buraku discrimination and all other forms of discrimination based on birth and usher in an era of human rights. I believe that efforts to eliminate this are inevitable. This will lead to a shift in our behaviour from not discriminating to eliminating discrimination.
"I don't believe in Rokuyo" and "I don't make decisions based on fortune-telling” is something that even one person can easily do, and at the same time, it is not that difficult to convince those who support superstitions that it is baseless. It's a practical thing you can do.
According to The Reality of Superstitions and Japanese Folk Beliefs (Ministry of Education Superstition Research Council) published in 1945, Rokuyo was invented by Zhuge Liang (Kongming), but it was more likely a Japanese version of the Chinese superstition of Xiao Liujin and given the named of Zhuge Liang.
A famous superstition book called Michinori-rui jō [feeling virtuous/compassionate/affectionate] written in the 36th year of Qianlong states, "There is no secret or deep meaning, and of course the righteousness is insignificant and should be relied on". Therefore it was completely omitted from the calendar notes that were popular during the Kansei, Bunka and Kaei periods, and not considered very important at the time.
At the end of the calendar notes, there is an excerpt from The Dawn of Darkness (written by Shiraga Arai), which says, "The summary of the tools used to mislead the world with foolishness are: Family attributes, physiognomy, ink colour, fortune-telling from handwriting, ghosts of golden and Buddhist deities, swords [for the paranormal], dates, star interpretations, possessions, curse prohibition, and non-fulfilment, Tsuji [fortune], dead spirits and living spirits.
If it's a good day to buy a house then it's bad day for those who sell it. A good day for those who pick things up or make money; a bad day for those who lose things or lose money.
Rokuyo in Japan has changed considerably from Xiao Liujin in China. Also, something like the Jingu-kan Family Almanac has nothing to do with any Kotai Jingu [Kotai Shrine], it's nothing more than a printed matter published by a commercial company called Jinguukan.
I have no choice but to say that people who blindly believe in it as important for their future lives, signifies the stagnation of spiritual culture in Japanese society.
The history of the names [and positions] of the Rokuyo days is as follows:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | ||
| China | Yang years | xiǎojí | kōng wáng | dà'ān | liúlián | sù xǐ | chìkǒu |
| Yin years | liúlián | sù xǐ | chìkǒu | xiǎojí | kōng wáng | dà'ān | |
| Muromachi period | Daian | Ruren | Haya ki | Akaguchi | Kokichi | Kumo | |
| Tokugawa period | Tai'an | Ryūren | Sokkichi | Akaguchi | Shukichi | Kyobō | |
| Current period | Sensho | Tomobiki | Sakimake | Butsumetsu | Taian | Shakku | |
Enryo Inoue, a scholar of ghost studies, said, "When people are told about good days and bad days, there are some who believe in such theories. Those who promote the theories take advantage of people's stupidity".
There is harm in attaching ghost stories and delusional theories to one's own self-interest. For this reason, those who have received an education today should work to eliminate such delusional theories and disentangle them. "We have no choice but to do so", he emphasized.
On 9 November 1872, Daijokan Proclamation No. 337 stated, "As per the copy of the attached edict for the revision of the calendar, we have come to an agreement to this effect". In order to change the calendar to the solar calendar, the following "copy of the edict to change the calendar" was published:
"For our country's calendar, the moon rises at the lunar phase and aligns with the sun's lunar phase. Therefore, there is no choice but to have an intercalary month every two or three years, and there are always early and late seasons before and after the leap month. Eventually, this leads to a difference in progress. In particular, the passages in the middle and lower sections are generally considered absurd, and there is nothing that hinders the development of human wisdom".
On 24 November of the same year, another Daijokan edict was issued: "With the distribution of the solar calendar, the abbreviated calendar for the 6th year of the Meiji era will not include the good and evil gods of Toshitoku, Konjin, and Sun, nor the middle and lower columns." The fact that superstitions such as Rokuyo, Sanrinbo, and Blood Type survive as customs has something in common with the existence of discrimination as a custom. And this custom is not formed intellectually, rather from imprinting. It's a sensory thing that gets imprinted on us through repetition in our daily lives, and we end up saying, "I understand in theory, but it just comes from my feelings..."
Baseless superstitions such as Rokuyo, Sanrinbo, and Blood Type still exist in today's technologically advanced Japanese society, and some people take advantage of this. A spiritual culture that believes in superstitions or cannot completely abandon them is closely linked to the perpetuation and promotion of all forms of discrimination.
Rokuyo is not determined by any mysterious or well-explained method, but is simply assigned by the numbers of months and days in the lunar calendar. It is also completely different from the so-called 'law of nature'.
For example, the calculated Rokuyo day for March 4th in the lunar calendar is (3 + 4) ÷ 6 = 1. The remainder "1" means it's Akaguchi. On October 19th in the lunar calendar, (10 + 19) ÷ 6 = 5. The remainder "5" means it's Butsumetsu. In other words, the Rokuyo day is simply determined by remainder number.
It doesn't necessarily come every six days. Taian is sometimes placed on the third day because the number of the month (the numerator of the calculation formula) has changed within that three-day period.
| Remainder = 0 | Taian |
| Remainder = 1 | Shakku |
| Remainder = 2 | Sensho |
| Remainder = 3 | Tomobiki |
| Remainder = 4 | Sakimake |
| Remainder = 5 | Butsumetsu |
So we have:
| Lunar month | 1st day | Lunar month | 1st day |
| 1 | Sensho | 7 | Sensho |
| 2 | Tomobiki | 8 | Tomobiki |
| 3 | Sakimake | 9 | Sakimake |
| 4 | Butsumetsu | 10 | Butsumetsu |
| 5 | Taian | 11 | Taian |
| 6 | Shakku | 12 | Shakku |
Do you want to have a relationship that makes you dazzle?
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.
In the early Meiji period, a series of Daijokan proclamations related to human rights were issued. However, there are still cases where this edict has not been accepted.
"Buraku" literally means hamlet/village, and "Burakumin" means people from such a place. On this page, read Buraku as a degoratory name for ethnic Japanese who are believed to be descendants of the pre-Meiji castes which were associated with kegare (defilement), such as executioners, undertakers, slaughterhouse workers, butchers, and tanners. The term encompasses both the historical eta and hinin outcasts.
During Japan's feudal era, these occupations acquired a hereditary status of untouchability, and became an unofficial caste of the Tokugawa class system during the Edo period. Due to severe discrimination and ostracism in Japanese society, these groups came to live as outcasts, in their own separate villages or ghettos.
After the caste system was abolished, the term Burakumin came into use to refer to the former caste members and their descendants, who continued to experience stigmatization and discrimination.