【Feature Exhibition 4】Almanac of the Ancient Period: Apr. 9, 2019 (Tue) ~ Jun. 9, 2019(Sun)

We update our calendar or schedule annually. They look almost the same, but, the content changes slightly every year. As you may already know, there will be a lot of major changes this year:  the Japanese era name will change and will be called Reiwa starting from May.1st, 2019.

 In the ancient period, the change was more drastic. Japanese official calendar used to be a lunisolar calendar until the beginning of the Meiji Period, not the solar calendar that we use today. The number of days in a month differed greatly in each month and appeared to be irregular. There was even an intercalary year, where a year included 13 months. We can trace the Japanese calendar up to the 5th century, the Five Kings period. In Fukuoka, an iron sword, which carries the name of an era existed at the end of the 6th century, was found.

 Edo period (16th -18th century) is known to be a period when a major change occurred in Japanese Almanac. However, even in the Nara and Heian Period (7-8th century), Japanese calendar was revised for several times. The Heian period was the time when people started to associate days in the calendar with luck or fortune of the nation and individual. This exhibition explains what kind of hopes and thoughts Japanese people had when they revise their calendar or name of the era, through introducing historical artifacts that well represent the history of the Japanese calendar.