Meanings of Japanese old calendar - blog dicethekamikaze

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1 Japanese old(lunar) calendar

Japanese old(lunar) calendar

Japanese calendar is called 暦(/koyomi/) in Japanese. Sometimes, Japanese old calendar names are used to describe current month in calendars and weather news on TVs. The time period of modern calendar is actually different from the Japanese old calendar period, but still used to describe current month. the list below shows the name of old calendar names, pronunciation, meaning and corresponding modern month.

Old calendar Kanji	pronunciation	Meaning	current month
睦月（むつき）	mutsuki	A month when families(relatives) gather	Jan
如月（きさらぎ）	kisaragi	A month wearing more clothes	Feb
弥生（やよい）	yayoi	A month when vegetation grow thick	Mar
卯月（うづき）	uzuki	A month of a deutzia	Apr
皐月（さつき）	satsuki	A month setting rice sprouts	May
水無月（みなつき）	minatsuki	A month of water (leading water to rice field)	Jun
文月（ふみづき）	fumizuki	A month when ear of rice grows	Jul
葉月（はづき）	hazuki	A month when leaves fall	Aug
長月（ながつき）	nagatsuki	A month which has long nights	Sep
神無月（かんなづき）	kannazuki	A month when all gods gather into Izumotaisha	Oct
霜月（しもつき）	shimotsuki	A month having frosts	Nov
師走（しわす）	shiwasu	A month when everyone hastes even masters	Dec

However, the time period of Japanese old calendar system is different from the Gregorian calendar since it is based on the lunar calendar. The beginning of the Mutsuki(Jan) is staring around Jan 20 – Feb 20. This is clearly based on Chinese calendar; however, Japanese old calendar is more based on the climate change and seasons, it isn’t exactly same as the Chinese calendar. The figure below shows the difference between the Gregorian calendar and Japanese old calendar.

A history of Japanese calendar system

Interestingly, history of the Gregorian calendar in Japan is not long in 2670 years of Japanese history. After the famous “Meiji Restoration” (1867), the Meiji government legislated to adopt the Gregorian calendar system on Dec 9, 1872. It’s been only 142 years since Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar.

Usage

The Japanese old calendar names are often used when people describes the seasons or the climates such as “Today is cold like Shiwasu(Dec)” because it is coming from the Japanese old calendar system which is based on the climates and agriculture. When you are watching TV a weather forecast, you might hear them often. Today, the usage of these terms are treated as equal to the Gregorian calendar system as the Japanese way of saying, but I would like to introduce a bit of deeper information of Japanese calendar system in this post.