- First: Tian “大安”
- Second: Tomobiki “友引”
- Thrid: Sensho “先勝”
- First: Butsumetsu “仏滅”
- Second: Shakko “赤口”
- Thrid: Senbu “先負”
East Asian culture tends to place importance on superstition that the stream of fortune energy is influenced by external factors that people can’t foreseen beforehand.
A direction of your room, date and a color of furnitures are the representative factors that has been believed to attract unexplainable fortunes apart from a series of realistic steps to win fortunes like the steps of seeding, growing and harvesting.
This is mostly categorized as spirituality thing which nobody can explain its ground and evidence. Whether attracting fortunes with those superstitious factors all depends of how people think of it.
However, this fortune superstition has been inherited at least for a couple thousands since the ancient period of China when China was chaos by rising several states domestically.
Such a superstition which is well known in Japan mostly came from China and is taken in Japanese living naturally these days that nobody feels it strange.
Rather, it is natural for people to think there is some secrets to bring fortunes behind this superstition because if not so, it can’t be possible that the superstition has been inherited for a couple of thousands years from ancient China.
Today, I am going to talk about Rokuyo, which is unique almanac that tells us something about fortunes .
Contents
What is Rokuyo “六曜”
“Rokuyo” has 6 types of date, which are “Sensho”= 先勝, “Tomobiki”= 友引, “Senbu” = “先負”, “Butsumetsu” = 仏滅, “Taian” = 大安, “Shakko” = 赤口. These are mostly used to fortune divination to decide the date of ceremonial occasions in Japan. If you live in Japan and have a Japanese calendar, you may realize that some Kanjis written under the number of date on a calendar.
You can realize each Rokuyo types is written right next to the number of date. Japanese people decide when getting married based on a type of Rokuyo which attracts the most fortune in the month.
The meaning of each type of Rokuyo
I explain general meaning of Rokuyo here because some of types of Rokuyo has different meaning from that in old days. For example, “Taian” is said to be unconditionally excellent day and Tomobiki is believed to be the day to avoid funeral ceremony but there is a gap between the present meaning and the old meaning. So I will tell you the general meaning that Japanese people usually recognize.
Taian “大安”
“Taian” literally means “Your mission is mostly easy to overcome”. Taian is the best day in other types of Rokuyo that you can succeed whatever you do. It’s kind of a day God bless you.
“Taian” is one of criteria for people to choose the day of happiness event like marriage
Tomobiki “友引”
Tomobiki has the meaning of “bring misfortune to your friend” or “your friend suffers from calamity” nowadays but originally, this indicates the day every gaming, competition or contest are drawn in old days.
The superstition of Tomobiki that holding funeral ceremony attract your dead friend to come to this world again and your dead friend will travel your spirit to the heaven or hell comes from the misunderstanding of ostensible meaning of kanji.
“Tomo” = 友 means “friend” and “Biki” = 引 means “kidnap your sprit to another place”. Many people believes in the latter meaning so that so many crematories close on the day recognized as “Tomobiki”
Sensho “先勝”
“Sen” = 先 means “First” and “Sho” = 勝 means “win”. This literally means “you can win whenever you get the start of something ”. To attract your fortune, you should do your things as early as possible.
By the way, doing something in the morning time brings you a fortune but doing something in the afternoon brings you misfortune. In the case that the thing you do needs long hours to finish, it is no problem if you start doing it in the morning time.
For example, marriage ceremony doesn’t mostly finish within half a day. In this case, if marriage ceremony starts in the morning, you can attract a fortune but starts in the afternoon, you may attract misfortune on the day of “Sensho”
”Senbu” 先負
“Sen” = 先 means “first” and “Bu” = 負 means “beaten”. This literally means you will be beaten whenever you get the start of something. This is totally opposite meaning of “Sensho”. To attract your fortune, you should do your things in the afternoon or evening time because doing something in the morning brings a misfortune.
This is the day you should avoid urgent business, gaming and competitions and spend in tranquillity and refrain from doing something as much as possible.
Shakko “赤口”
This type of Rokuyo originates from the bad day called “shakuzetsunichi” = 赤舌日 in Onmyodo 陰陽道. Onmyodo is a traditional Japanese esoteric cosmology, a mixture of natural science and occultism.
All the time zone except for the one from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. brings you a misfortune. Especially, the day indicating “Shako” is the worst for any happy events.
“Shaku” = 赤 means “Strong sun” that indicates afternoon and “Ko” = 口 means “mouth”. The reason that the time zone from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. brings you a fortune is because your month is only the organ that emits the power of sun temporarily.
Moreover, “Shaku” also means “red” and this reminds us of blood so you pay serious attention to using knives on the day.
Butsumetsu “仏滅”
This day is as bad as Buddha (God) is dead and is the most unlucky day among other types of Rokuyo. Everyone of Japanese keeps away from this day to do some happy events. It is no problem to hold funeral ceremony on this day.
Rule of order of Rokuyo
Rokuyo basically repeats in order of Sensho → Tomobiki → Senbu → Butsumetsu → Taian → Shakko.
The first day of a month is fixed to a certain type of Rokuyo.
| January, July | Sensho “先勝” |
|---|---|
| February, August | Tomobiki “友引” |
| March, September | Senbu “先負” |
| April, October | Butsumetsu “仏滅” |
| May, November | Taian “大安” |
| June, December | Shakko “赤口” |
3 best Rokuyo types
However, Tomobiki brings a misfortune in the afternoon and Sensho brings a fortune in the morning.
In case of marriage, there is a superstition that if giving your happiness to marring couple, you receive fortune in return later so we have a custom to give a present to marring couple at wedding ceremony.
For people who get married soon, Tomobiki “友引” is the second most popular type of Rokuyo next to Taian “大安”. There is no meaning “your dead friend to come to this world again and your dead friend will travel your spirit to the heaven or hell” like funeral case in case of marriage.
It really confuses you that some of Rokuyo has two opposite meanings between happiness even and funeral event.
Some people think that Sensho “先勝” is the second best one because it means prioritizing everything you need to do first brings you a fortune. But the difference between Sensho “先勝” and Tomobiki “友引” is only whether fortune comes if you do something in the morning or in the afternoon or evening time.
3 worst Rokuyo types
I often hear the question from people which is worse day, Butsumetu “仏滅”, Shakko “赤口”. Butsumetsu is said to be worse day than any other Rokuyo types generally.
However, Shakko “赤口” is also regarded as evil day, which especially you should refrain from doing something new or holding happiness events so when thinking about which one is worse again on this premise, these two types are much the same feature.
Some people who think Shakko is worse than Butsumetsu believes in a theory that Shakko brings worse misfortune beyond Butsumetsu except for time zone between 11 a.m. to 1 p.m
Where Rokuyo came from
Rokuyo is said to have originated from ancient Chinese fortune-telling based on time named “Da Liu Ren” = “六壬神課” at the period of Liu Song Dynasty (宋) from 960 to 1279
When “date” started being used for fortune-telling is the period of Qin dynasty “清” from 1616 to 1912. This is a root of the present “Rokuyo” but its naming and order has been changing from generation to generation. So Rokuyo at this period is far different from the present one but basic structure is the same.
From the end of Kamakura period to Muromachi period in 14th century, this tradition was propagated from China and started being used as “date fortune telling”. However, the period of time when this became popular among commoners was the end of Edo period.
Conclusion
Rokuyo used originally not only for fortune-telling but also substitute for the names of days of week at the period when there were no appropriate expression for days of week in Japan.
This is nothing but just fortune-telling. It has totally nothing to do with any religions in Japan. Rather, there is a doctrine that prohibits fortune-telling in some Buddhist denominations.
However, so many people believe in this superstition so that wedding and funeral industry get into step with people’s thought. No companies suggest a plan of wedding ceremony on the day that indicates “Butsumetsu”. Instead, wedding ceremony ads pushes the lucky day like Taian on the first line. They are really sensitive about considering Rokuyo to hold a ceremony.
| morning | afternoon, evening | |
|---|---|---|
| Sensho “先勝” | Good | Bad |
| Tomobiki “友引” | Good | Bad (Only From 11 a.m to 1 p.m) |
| Senbu “先負” | Bad | Good |
| Butsumetsu “仏滅” | Bad | Bad |
| Taian “大安” | Good | Good |
| Shakko “赤口” | Bad | Good ( Only From 11 a.m to 1 p.m) |