Speculative fiction writer, long-term resident of Japan and Bram Stoker Award finalist Thersa Matsuura explores all that is weird from old Japan—strange superstitions, folktales, cultural oddities, and interesting language quirks. These are little treasures she digs up while doing research for her writing.
https://www.uncannyjapan.com/
episode 15: Inviting a Friend to Die (Rokuyo)
The rokuyo (六曜) or six days is the Japanese calendar that you consult when preparing to engage in various affairs: wedding, funerals, trips, and business dealings to name a few. Some days are good for some things, other days are good for others. Some days are just bad, bad, bad.
If you take a good look at a lot of Japanese calendars and daily planners, they have two small kanji written in the corner of every day. These signify which of the six rokuyo that particular day is. You definitely don't want to incur bad luck and have your wedding on a butsumetsu (仏滅 ) or invite a group of mourners to join the deceased loved one in the Buddha's paradise by holding a funeral on a tomobiki (友引).
This month's podcast is all about the rokuyo. Come listen while you take a ride with me on the local train via binaural mics.
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Notes: The intro/outro music of Uncanny Japan is a song by Christiaan Virant (“Yi Gui” from Ting Shuo). The whole album is just gorgeous as it everything else by FM3.