Lunar calendar revisited in Japan

May 14, 2009

Lunar calendar revisited in Japan


Japanese are a nature- and season-conscious people. The four seasons are clear in Japan, which lies in the Temperate Zone in East Asia. “Japanese people have a highly developed sense of the seasons, and I think this is praise-worthy,” Dr. Donald Keene, a professor emeritus at Columbia University and a noted Japanese literature researcher, said in a recent extensive interview on NHK, Japan’s public TV network.
Japanese lived with a modified lunar calendar until 1872. The remnants of the lunar calendar are seen sometimes in the social life in today’s Japan. Japanese people exchange greeting cards with each other at the beginning of the year. The messages have an introductory remark, for example, “I pray for your family’s health on the start of the new spring.” This is because the start of spring came around the start of the year when the old lunar calendar was in use.
A waka poem composed by Ki Tsurayuki (871?-946), one of the greatest poets in the Heian period, and included in the Kokinwakashu poem anthology follows:

A hillside fountain where I scooped up water
while getting my sleeves wet;
it perhaps froze in winter,
and I wonder if it is melting on a breeze today on the first day of spring.
(A personal translation)

The poet tried to depict one cycle of the seasons, from summer to early spring, in a single 31-syllable waka poem. The editors of the 20-volume poem anthology, including Tsurayuki himself, developed a method of dividing and arranging poems by season, giving the first six volumes to those related to the four seasons.
Japanese people feel no problem with the current solar calendar in their ordinary life, but it becomes complex when they observe certain seasonal events and customs. The old lunar calendar is about one month behind the solar calendar. According to the lunar calendar, the first day of spring falls on Feb. 4 in 2009.
People who call for revisiting the lunar calendar fear that Japanese people’s traditional sense of the seasons may be distorted further if they live only on the existing solar calendar. “Why do we have to observe the Festival of the Weaver amid the tsuyu rainy season?” they ask. The rainy season continues from June to early or mid-July. The Star Festival is held on July 7 according to the solar calendar in most regions in Japan, but the original custom calls for observing it a month later.
The lunar calendar “reminds us of the original bodily rhythm which we received from our ancestors,” says the author of a book which recommends the lunar calendar. Farmers and fishermen read the old lunar calendar for their nature-oriented jobs. The old calendar gives Japanese people power to heal themselves while living a life in harmony with nature, another advocate says. Tsurayuki came of a ruined old prestigious family. He is not a poet of passion. His poems are moderate and elegant. The argument of the lunar calendar advocates should be studied further, but at least it sounds attractive to many Japanese as their daily life is filled with strong stress.

An author’s note: Most waka poems have five phrases, basically with 5-7-5-7-7 syllables. This style sounds smooth and rhythmic to Japanese, including today’s Japanese.