友引

Tomobiki

“Friends Joined”

mixed

The literal meaning of Tomobiki is "pulling friends." In the original meaning, this referred to outcomes that pull others along — a victory shared, a celebration that includes neighbors. Over time, the name acquired its strongest modern association: do not hold funerals on Tomobiki, lest the deceased "pull friends" along into death. Many crematoriums in Japan still close on this day.

But the underlying day-structure is more nuanced than the funeral taboo suggests. Morning and afternoon are favorable; midday is not. The day asks you to honor the rhythm of giving and receiving, of being together and being briefly apart.

If today is Tomobiki, today is a good day for things you do with people. A meal with friends. A meeting that needs warmth. A conversation that has been pending. The collective energy of the day amplifies what you do together.

But it is also a day to avoid things that should be solitary or solemn — work that requires deep concentration in the middle hours, decisions that need pure logic, encounters that should be private. The day pulls friends along, which means it is bad for things that should not be pulled along.

The midday gap (11:00–13:00) is the inflection point. Practical rokuyō readers schedule weddings for late morning or evening on Tomobiki. They schedule contemplative work for outside the social hours. The day favors connection. Honor what wants to be connected; protect what wants to be alone.

Today's Time Structure

favorable morning, unfavorable midday (11:00–13:00), favorable afternoon

morning

favorable

midday

unfavorable

afternoon

favorable

Morning 6:00–11:00 · Midday 11:00–13:00 · Afternoon 13:00–22:00

Next 14 Days

友引

先負

仏滅

大安

赤口

先勝

友引

先負

仏滅

大安

赤口

先勝

友引

仏滅

Next Taian: May 7, 2026 (Thursday)

Next Butsumetsu: May 6, 2026 (Wednesday)

Tomobiki's funeral taboo is one of the most persistent rokuyō observances in modern Japan, with crematorium closures preserved across generations. The daily inflection at midday traces to Edo-period almanac formalization of the morning/midday/afternoon tripartite structure shared by several rokuyō days.

About Rokuyō

What is Rokuyō?

Rokuyō (六曜) — literally “six days” — is a traditional Japanese system that assigns a quality to each day in a six-day cycle. Unlike the seven-day week imported from Europe, the rokuyō follows the rhythm of the Japanese lunisolar calendar and treats each day as having a particular character: when to begin things, when to wait, when to act in the morning versus the afternoon.

The system is not predictive in the way Western horoscopes claim to be. It does not tell you what will happen. It tells you what kind of day this is, and lets you decide what to do with that.

Where it comes from

The roots of rokuyō reach back to Chinese divination traditions, but the system as we know it today was shaped in Japan. It entered through the lunisolar calendars adopted from China during the Muromachi period (14th–16th centuries), began appearing in popular almanacs during the Edo period (1603–1868), and became a standard feature of printed calendars during the Meiji period when calendar publishing was modernized.

It is, in other words, both old and not as old as people sometimes assume. Rokuyō is not from the age of Heian poetry or imperial Kyoto courts. It is from the age of merchant towns, printed almanacs, and the ordinary scheduling of weddings, openings, and farewells.

How it works in modern Japan

Walk into a Japanese stationery store and look at any wall calendar — most will print the rokuyō for each date in small characters beneath the day. Most people in their daily life don't check it. But when something matters — a wedding date, a funeral, a business opening, a contract signing — many people will glance at it. Wedding venues charge premium rates on Taian days and offer significant discounts on Butsumetsu days. Many crematoriums close on Tomobiki, because the name itself (“pulling friends”) makes it inauspicious to bury someone on that day.

The cultural register is somewhere between seriously believed and politely respected. It is not science. It is not pure superstition either. It is a shared inherited rhythm, and most Japanese people relate to it the way they relate to other inherited rhythms — flexibly, with humor, and with occasional real attention when the stakes are high.

How Mikujin reads rokuyō

We do not treat rokuyō as fortune-telling. We treat it as a structure for thinking about the texture of a day — what kind of energy it carries, what it suggests about timing, what it asks of you. The day does not control you. But the day has a shape, and noticing the shape often makes the day go better.

Each of the six rokuyō has its own particular wisdom. Read for the day you are in. Then put the page down and live the day.