At a glance
- Reading focus
- Separate date data from auspicious interpretation on the same page.
Definition and details
Rekichū refers to annotations rather than one divinatory system. NDL identifies surviving terms including stems and branches, rokuyō, solar terms and miscellaneous seasonal markers. Solar terms concern the Sun’s annual apparent motion, while cyclical dates and auspicious labels serve different purposes despite appearing together on a printed calendar page.
Structure and history
Detailed court calendars recorded seasonal and daily annotations in Chinese characters, while kana calendars reflect simplification and circulation. After Japan adopted a solar calendar in 1873, older vocabulary remained in festivals and almanacs. Old calendar often refers to a Tenpō-based lunisolar reckoning, not an interchangeable label for every historical calendar.
A concrete example
If a page places Taian beside a solar term, ask which rokuyō sequence produced the label and which solar position defines the seasonal marker. Establishing both rules explains their coincidence. Reconstructing a historical wedding choice additionally requires local evidence; a present-day calendar cannot by itself show what earlier participants considered significant.
Context and limits
Annotations illuminate time culture, publishing and social practice, while auspicious prescriptions are not validated forecasts. Historical conversion depends on calendar rules, locations and reform dates. Keep miscellaneous seasonal observances distinct from solar terms, and do not turn a customary date label into a scientific guarantee of weather, daylight or successful scheduling.
References & further reading
Historical sources document ideas and rules of their time, not empirical proof of predictive accuracy. Source notes identify the nature and scope of each reference.
- National Diet Library · 暦の中のことばInstitutional / reference source
Library exhibition explaining old calendars, annotations, stems and branches, rokuyō and solar terms.
- National Diet Library · 暦の渡来と普及Institutional / reference source
Description of annotated court calendars and their simplified kana successors.