Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 233

1841.

Notices of Japan, No. VIII.

219

But perhaps the most whimsical, and certainly the most inconvenient, division of time in Japan, is that by hours. A natural day and night is there divided into twelve hours, of which six are always allotted to the day-that is to say, to the interval between the rising and the setting of the sun; the other six to the night, or the period between sunset and sunrise. Thus, the hours of the day and of the night are never of equal duration in Japan, except at the equinoxes; in summer, the hours of the day being long, those of night short, and in winter vice versa.

moons in any one sign) that month is intercalary, and the year consequently con- tains thirteen months. The intercalated year contains 384 days, and the common year 354; the 1st, 3d, 4th, 8th and 12th months have 29 days; the others 30 each. Besides these monthly divisions depending on the moon, the year is still further divided into twenty-four periods of about fifteen days each, the settlement of which depends on the time when the sun is in the first and fifteenth degree of any zodiacal sign. This division was also obtained from the Chinese.

The Japanese have a sort of descriptive term for each of the months called its wa miyo, or harinonizing name; they are thus explained in the chapter entituled, Nippon gets rei zen, or, All the monthly festivals of Japan, found in the work called the Mirror of Female Education.

1st month, or shiyo gwats, is called

A

mo tsuki, the amicable month because the hearts of people are then mild and goodnatured from the festivities of the newyear.

2d month, ni gwats, is called

ki-sara-gi, the month to change

clothes, because then the winter clothing is laid aside.

3d month, san gwate, is called

yayoi, the budding month, becausa

nature then revives from the slumber of the winter.

4th month, shi gwats, is called

the flowers are in bloom.

A

u dzuki, or flourishing month, when

5th month, go gwats, is called sa tsuki, or transplanting month, at which

time the crop of rice is transplantǝd.

6th month, roku gwate, is called mina dzuki, or dry month;

because no rain falls.

水無月

7th month, sicki gwats, is called ♬ fumi tsuki, or letters' month, be-

cause in this month an ode to the stars is written on papers and suspended on poles.

8th month, hachi gwats, is called ha dzuki, or leaf month, because

the leaves of autumn begin to fall.

葉月

9th month, ku gwats, is called naga tsuki, or the long month, for

the nights begin to grow long.

10th month, ziyu gwats, is called

kami-na dzuki, or godless

month, because it is supposed that all the deities leave their shrines this month, and go to Idzumo on the north of Japan.

11th month, ziyu.ichi gwats, is called

shimo tsuki, or hoar-frost

month, because the rains congeal into snow and hoar frost.

12th month, xiyuni gwats, is called shiwasu, the final or season-ending month. The number of festivals, and civic and religious ceremonies, occurring through- out the year, is very great, and the important ones are carefully observed by all classes. Titsingh has given an account of some of the great festivals, and others that are observed by the court; see his Annals, pages 114–144.]