The July 23 Japan Times front page features a wonderful photo of a polar bear chewing on an icy treat at Tennoji Zoo in Osaka, but the tail end of the caption misleadingly says, "The ice was a present ahead of 'Taisho' . . . the hottest day of the year under an old variation of the lunar calendar."
There are some misunderstandings here. For example, what Japan used until 1872 was a combination lunar/solar calendar. Taisho was one of the 24 periods that the solar portion of the year was divided into, about 15 days per period.
So, Taisho does not mean the hottest day of the year; it refers to what is, on average, the hottest period of the year. This year, July 23 marked the beginning of that period. Similarly, "Daikan" refers to the coldest period of the year, which begins Jan. 20.
While Japanese enjoy celebrating the many things the four seasons have to offer, under the traditional calendar, another way the solar year was divided was into 24 shorter "seasons," such as Taisho and Daikan, for helping farmers and others keep in tune with nature for work as well as pleasure.
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