Kaichu-reki had a cover so that it could be folded up and carried easily. As in the case of contemporary calendars, merchants distributed them among their customers at the year-end as a form of advertising. Many examples of these calendars remain today. Folding them into small sections or tacking them to a post, people in the Edo period used them for daily reference. Simplified calendars, consisting of only the well-used parts, are called Ryaku-reki (Abridged calendars). The men and women wear costumes connected with the monthly events or the seasons, and hold symbolic objects. In the dancing circle, men represent long months, women, the short months. This is an example of work by Kawanabe Kyosai (1831-89), who incorporated 'Eejanaika!' dancing in a Daisho-reki calendar. Reflecting the confusion associated with such a transition, riots, during which people danced while chanting 'Eejanaika! (So what?),' occurred in many parts of the country. In 1868 the Edo shogunate fell and the reins of government were returned to young Emperor Meiji, ushering in an age of modernization for Japan. Another is the Ise-reki calendar, which was published in what is now Ise city in Mie prefecture and widely spread as Oshi, Shinto priests of the Ise shrines, traveled through the country.Ĥth year of Keio (first year of Meiji, 1868) Daisho-reki A very old one, the Mishima-reki calendar, published in a district corresponding to the present-day Mishima city in Shizuoka prefecture, is said to date back to the 14th century. Local calendarsĬalendars were published mainly in Kyoto, but as the demand rose, they began to sell in various regions. In particular, when using lunisolar calendars in which the order of long and short months changed year after year, learning them proved indispensable for merchants who made collections or payments at the end of each month.īecause of this, various types of calendars were devised and used. Farmers and merchants found them essential to know the seasons and events. Daily life and the calendarĬalendars at first were exclusively for the use of the imperial court and noblemen, but after the dawn of printed calendars, more and more people came to use them. The Asakusa Observatory was built in 1782 and moved to Kudan-sakashita in the 3rd year of Tenpo (1842). The globe in the center is a 'Kontengi'(astrolabe), an instrument used to study movements of the heavenly bodies. This is a view of the Asakusa Astronomical Observatory in 'Torigoe-no-fuji,' compiled in 'Fugaku-hyakkei,' a collection of woodblock prints by the noted Ukiyoe artist Katsushika Hokusai, which was used by the Tenmongata of the Edo shogunate for astronomical observation. Calendar calculation was made by the 'Tenmongata' (officer in charge of astronomy) in the Edo shogunate, with notes added by the Kotokui family, descendants of the Kamo family, after which calendars were issued by publishers in various regions. Through these amendments, a more accurate lunisolar calendar was devised incorporating Occidental astronomy. Later in the Edo period, the calendar was revised several times, the results respectively called the Horeki (1755), Kansei (1798) and Tenpo (1844) calendars. In the 2nd year of Jokyo (1685), a method of making the calendar was devised by Shibukawa Harumi, marking the first attempt by a Japanese, with the amended version known as the Jokyo calendar. Prior to then, the calendar was made each year based on the Senmyo-reki brought from China in the 4th year of Jogan (862), but as the same method had been used for more than eight centuries, it was deemed consistent with the situation prevailing at the time. As the Edo period wore on and knowledge of astronomy grew more sophisticated, the discrepancy between the calendar and actual astronomical events, such as eclipses of the sun and moon, became an issue, there arose a movement within the shogunate to amend the calendar.

Heavenly bodies calendars