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A belief in something doesn't make it a fact, and a belief doesn't need factual evidence in order for it to exist and be powerful.
Take astrology, for example. (Please take it, because we don't want it.)
Some refer to it as science, some as pseudoscience, and some consider it religion. Whatever it is, astrology suffers the same basic problems as Rokuyō.
Questions of credibility apply to both astrology and Rokuyō; a system compiled by some ancient sages who may, or may not, have been enlightened and in touch with equally ancient deities or other supernatural entities. The credibility of Rokuyō depends on how accurate those sages were about understanding which lunar calendar to use and at what date to start the very first six-day cycle.
Equally important is which part of each of the six days should be lucky, and which not.
And then we need to remember that the order of Rokuyō days changed after the Tokugawa period. Ooops!
Mainstream religions such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, etc, can rely on ancient texts which have been exhaustively studied and rigorously tested over the centuries. Those sacred texts provide, amongst other things, wisdom, moral commandments and ethical conduct, give spiritual aspirations and divine revelations. It's easy to understand why people believe in a supreme God and have faith.
Rokuyō, in contrast, doesn't even pretend to be a religion; it's just a set of superstitions that it will be to be lucky, or unlucky, or neither lucky nor unlucky, at certain times of the day on a particular phase of the moon.
The plain fact is that the fortune of a day doesn't depend on what the Rokuyō day is, but rather on how each individual spends the day. It differs from person to person.
Somebody emailed us recently, asking which Rokuyō day it was on their wedding date, twelve years ago. They're now divorcing and wondered if their marriage failed because their wedding was on the 'wrong' day. It's useful to be able to put the blame on somebody or something else when things go wrong. Similarly when things go right, it's tempting to say "That proves Rokuyō / astrology / tea-leaf-reading works!"
When a couple fall in love and marry, the success of their marriage largely depends on what they put into the relationship. If instead, they trust their future on Rokuyō, then they only have themselves to blame if things go awry.
But the attraction of Rokuyō is understandable to a certain extent. As with astrology, Rokuyō is mysterious. For a start, it's from the East with a fuzzy ancient history. And partly because it's exotic, some people fall into the trap of believing there's something in it.
Luck is a relative concept. Probably like you, I'm incredibly lucky today because I live in country with a living standard that's much more comfortable than the majority of other people in the world. But also today I accidentally dropped my phone and the screen broke. So is today lucky for me, or unlucky?
We also need to remember that in many cases, luck should only be considered 'good' in a win-win situation. For example, consider the start of a business venture on a Senshō morning, which succeeds but hurts the competitor. That would both good and bad luck; a conflict for the Rokuyō day.
Similarly with sporting events, where most matches result in winners and losers. A win-win situation would be something like breaking a personal-best record running a marathon or lifting a heavier weight.
Senshō is also favoured for those summoned to appear court, but again, in many cases there are victims and perpetrators. A win-win situation could be a successful acquittal of a so-called 'victimless crime' or an amnesty from a crime that society now agrees is outdated and should be abolished.
Actually it's bad luck every day if the casino happens to be in Japan, since such establishments are currently illegal. Both customers and operators are subject to severe penalties. (A law was passed in 2018 which will permit gambling with games, such as poker or baccarat, and the country's first gambling resort is due to open in Osaka in 2029.)
Pachinko parlours have been legal for decades, giving very small prizes for winners. Nevertheless, they remain hugely popular every day of the week, except (according to the parlour managers we've spoken to in Japan) on Butsumetsu days.
Luck can be categorised with these two types:
Zero-sum luck: This type of luck is when the advantage to one person disadvantages others. In other words, the total amount of luck remains constant, but it is redistributed among individuals. Gambling is a prime example.
Non-zero-sum luck: This type of luck doesn't disadvantage anyone. For example, being lucky in having fine weather for your picnic.
Ah! And there's a third type which we could call:
Ambiguous luck: This type of luck is quite subjective, whether an event benefits one person at the expense of another (zero-sum) or benefits one person without impacting others (non-zero-sum). For example, you might lose in a sporting competition (zero-sum luck), but sufficiently benefit from the pleasure of taking part so that losing doesn't matter to you.
Collecting evidence to support or refute Rokuyō is easy. Just recall some momentous events in your life and check the date on the Rokuyō calendar. For me, one momentous day was when I got married. That was a lucky Taian day and I've been happily married for several decades. My wife, however, might say marrying me was bad luck!
Let's look at seven world-famous catastrophes this century:
President Putin started Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Butsumetsu. That was certainly a bad day for Ukraine, and also a bad day for Russia which began its rapid descent towards being the world's most despised country. So does that give support for the notion that Butsumetsu is a 'bad luck' day?
No – quite the opposite! For the shareholders of matériel suppliers, the invasion was and is extremely 'good luck'.
Putin's desire was to expand his empire and benefit from the massive amount of rare minerals in Ukrainian territory. America supported Ukraine with weapons and logistics, since America's president Trump also wanted to expand his empire and benefit from the rare minerals owned by Ukraine.
After three years of fighting, in February 2025 Trump and Putin discussed peace. They both wanted the same thing so a compromise was discussed, where the fighting would stop if Russia could keep the 20% of Ukrainian land it now occupied, and both Russia and America would share the minerals. The Ukrainian president Zalenski was completely excluded from the negotiations.
Zalenski met Trump and vice-president Vance at the White House in Washington at 11:00 on 28 Febuary 2025, a Tomobiki day. The meeting was televised live and didn't go well. Shockingly, for all the world to see, Trump and Vance loudly castigated Zelenski for being disrespectful and not thanking the US enough, even though the Ukrainian leader had thanked the US dozens of times for its military support. This tragic scene confirmed what people around the world knew already, that Trump, and the next US president-in-wait, were just as bullying as Putin.
Tomobiki means "lucky all day, except at noon", and "noon" in Rokuyō-speak is from 11:00 to 13:00. So the hubristic outburst (at about 11:20) suited the Rokuyō day quite well.
But wait...
The "lucky all day, except at noon" means from 13:00 onwards would be lucky, but it certainly wasn't. Zalensky was ejected from the White house early in the afternoon (14:40), and thereafter Trump halted military support and intelligence sharing with Ukraine.
That betrayal enabled Putin to have less resistance from Ukrainian forces, and Ukraine had less warning of air raids. In other words, even more Ukrainians were killed.
Well, it may be, but taking such pseudoscience seriously can have tragic consequences.
Consider how many people have consulted Chinese astrology to determine the sex of an unborn child, and aborted the baby if the result was undesirable. Accuracy of an astrological prediction of a baby's sex is at best only 50%.
And what if the child later becomes pansexual?
Please enjoy these Rokuyō pages, but put no faith in the system. Rokuyō, invented by some unknown philosophers and sages hundreds of years ago, is no match for the power you can generate within yourself to change your life. Be assured that you will get much more benefit in life by putting faith in yourself, your family, your friends, and of course, your God.
"Therefore since the world has still
Much good but much less good than ill,
And while the sun and moon endure
Luck's a chance but trouble's sure,
I'd face it as a wise man would,
And train for ill and not for good."
(A E Houseman)
(This page was updated on 6 June 2006. That's 6/6/6, supposedly the mark of the Devil. And yet nothing unusually bad or demonic happened for the world on that day...)
Oil company PR departments prefer the soft word "spill", rather than more devastating terms such as "gush"
<pansexual> (adj.): having a variety of sexual interests, especially kitchen utensils
... and there are a few more here
Zalenski was accused of being disrespectful, because rather than wearing a suit for the meeting, he wore a military-style sweatshirt. His choice of clothing was a show of solidarity with soldiers fighting the Russian army on the war's frontlines.
His choice was no different from when Winston Churchill wore military-style clothing to a meeting with then-US President Franklin Roosevelt.
It is normal for country leaders, including Trump himself, to wear clothing to mark the occasion of the event. In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey (August 2017), Trump visited Texas to assess the damage and wore a black hooded rain jacket, khaki trousers and brown boots. He was not exposed to any physical environment which required such clothing.
So rather than Zalenski being at fault, to imply that wearing a suit was more important than expressing support for the millions of people suffering from the war in Ukraine, was showing U.S. leadership's utter contempt and arrogant disrespect.