I would like to know whether a majority of the Japanese people just accepted this drastic change (especially since moving traditional holidays to the Gregorian Calendar has changed the season in which many of them are held) or if there was any significant resistance, and, if so, what kind. Thanks in advance for any answers!
The calendar reform in 1873 initially caused great confusion, because the proclamation was issued less than one month before the Gregorian New Year.
On January 1, 1873, a rationalistic journalist Fukuzawa Yukichi published Kairekiben (Explanation about the Calendar Reform), and sold more than 100,000 copies. In it, he strongly promoted the new calendar, saying:
Those skeptical of the reform are undoubtedly fools who have no education or literacy. Those not skeptical are undoubtedly wise people who are always eager for education. This reform is like a nationwide test which reveals who are wise and who are foolish.
What he was criticizing was superstitious people who believed the traditional astrology determining each day’s fortune based on the lunar calendar and the Chinese sexagenary cycle. He hoped that the reform would wipe out the superstition and transform Japan into a more modern and rational nation.
In reality, although people in large cities quickly adopted the new calendar, the reform didn’t change the life of farmers and fishermen in rural areas immediately. The only legal almanac published by the government gave both Gregorian and lunar dates up until 1908, and anonymous publishers widely sold illegal almanacs known as obake-goyomi (ghost almanacs), which showed the lunar calendar and the sexagenary cycle, as well as each day’s fortune based on the rokuyō system. The regulation on almanacs was abolished right after the World War II, and today people still follow the rokuyō system in deciding the dates of weddings and funerals.
In 1883, Tokyo Astronomical Observatory inquired of every district office in Japan to find out which calendar people followed to celebrate New Year in each village. According to the survey from Kyoto Prefecture, people in the city of Kyoto had been celebrating only the Gregorian New Year since 1873, and the coastal town of Maizuru gradually switched to the new calendar from 1873 to 1877. However, people in villages around Maizuru took Lunar New Year more seriously, only taking a day off to visit shrine (hatsumōde) on Gregorian New Year, and celebrating Lunar New Year at home with their families in the traditional way. People in remote villages totally ignored Gregorian New Year, and old folks there didn’t even know what the Gregorian date was that day.
As expected, farmers were especially adherent to the lunar calendar. On Gregorian New Year, they were not only busy planting wheat, but also short of money to celebrate, because they had not yet got yearly income in exchange for the rice they had just finished harvesting. Fishermen also preferred the lunar calendar, which corresponds with moon phases and therefore is useful in estimating tide times. People in snowy regions didn’t like Gregorian New Year either, because villages there were not yet covered with much snow and they could still work outside.
On the other hand, even in rural areas, public officers, teachers and students had to immediately get accustomed to the Gregorian calendar. Shinto priests also strictly followed the Gregorian calendar as the members of “State Shinto,” which played a large part in the calendar reform. Buddhist monks, bankers, doctors and silk producers also adopt the new calendar quickly.
Since the reform, traditional festivals have been celebrated not only in the lunar or Gregorian calendar, but also according to the tsukiokure (one-month-later) rule. For example, the bon festival was traditionally held on the 15th day of the 7th month in the lunar calendar. Today, the Kanto region celebrate it on July 15th, while other regions celebrate it on August 15th every year, despite the fact that the lunar date this year actually falls on Gregorian August 25th.
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