Many calendars in Japan carry a small extra word beneath each date. It runs in a cycle of six, and for a wedding one of those words has always mattered more than the other five combined: Taian (大安), great peace. Japanese couples have chased Taian dates for generations, and the Taian 2027 calendar is already quietly deciding which Saturdays next year will be the hardest to book and the most costly to marry on.
This is the full list, checked day by day. It’s also an argument for ignoring it.
Six Days, One Very Old Idea
The cycle is called rokuyō. It began as a form of Chinese divination, reached Japan somewhere between the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, and was in popular use by the end of the Edo era. When Japan adopted the Western calendar in the 1870s, the Meiji government cleared fortune-telling notes off official calendars as superstition. Rokuyō survived in the unofficial ones, and after the war it settled onto calendars across the country, where it has stayed ever since.
The six days always run in the same order:
- Sensho (先勝): good in the morning, less so after noon.
- Tomobiki (友引): a good day for weddings, because it “pulls friends along” into your happiness.
- Senbu (先負): the reverse of Sensho, calmer in the afternoon.
- Butsumetsu (仏滅): the least lucky day of all.
- Taian (大安): great peace, lucky from morning to night, and the day weddings want.
- Shakku (赤口): unlucky, except for a short window around midday.
Tomobiki shows how seriously the system can still be taken. The same idea of pulling friends along that makes it a happy day for a wedding makes it an unwelcome one for a funeral, and many crematoria in Japan still close on Tomobiki. Sapporo has decided to open its municipal crematoria on those days, because demand has grown too great to keep them shut.
The order never changes, but the cycle isn’t simply every sixth day. It restarts at the beginning of each month of the old lunar calendar, which is why the gap between one Taian and the next is sometimes shorter than six days and sometimes nearly twice as long.
The Unluckiest Day Was Never About the Buddha
Butsumetsu is written with the characters for the Buddha and for destruction, and it’s often translated as the day the Buddha died. It isn’t. The day was originally written 物滅, the destruction of things, and before that it went by other names altogether. Somewhere along the way the character for things was swapped for one that can be read the same way, and an ordinary bad-luck day acquired a much grander curse. Rokuyō has no connection to Buddhism at all.
None of that has stopped Japanese couples avoiding it. Plenty of wedding venues in Japan offer discounted Butsumetsu plans to fill those dates, and they’re noticeably easier to book.
What the Taian 2027 Calendar Actually Looks Like
There are sixty Taian days in 2027. Only eleven of them fall on a Saturday or a Sunday. Add the four that land on public holidays, and Japan’s most-wanted wedding dates of the year come to fifteen.
Narrow it to spring and autumn, the seasons Japanese couples have always favoured for weddings, and there are eight: 7 March, 4 April, 3 May, 4 September, 2 and 30 October, and 23 and 28 November. Those are the dates that fill first at hotels and wedding halls across the country, and the venues know it.
The Case for the Unlucky Ones
We plan weddings for couples from all over the world, and for very few of them does the rokuyō decide anything. Their date matters for other reasons: the season, the light, how far everyone is flying, whether Mt Fuji is likely to show itself that week, which fortnight every family’s leave finally lines up. Our guide to choosing a wedding date in Japan goes into those properly.
If the word under the date means nothing to you, it can quietly work in your favour. Take the first weekend of April 2027. Saturday 3 April falls a day before Kyoto’s average date of full bloom, and it’s a Butsumetsu. The Sunday after it is a Taian. Couples who don’t mind what’s printed beneath the Saturday may find it easier to secure, and at a venue built around Japanese weddings it can cost less than the lucky Sunday that follows. Blossom, of course, keeps its own calendar, which no almanac has ever managed to print.
The discount matters most at the hotels and wedding halls that host several Japanese weddings a day. The places most of our couples choose host one celebration a day, a ryokan given to a single party, a private garden, a villa in the mountains, and there the calendar that counts is the season. Those dates are scarce whatever word sits beneath them.
There is one good reason to care about Taian even if you don’t believe in it. If one of your families is Japanese, ask before you choose. For some grandparents the word under the date matters a great deal, and a Taian wedding can be a gift to them that costs you nothing more than a little flexibility.
The Full Taian 2027 Calendar
| Month | Taian dates in 2027 |
|---|---|
| January | Sat 2, Wed 13, Tue 19, Mon 25, Sun 31 |
| February | Sat 6, Thu 11 (holiday), Wed 17, Tue 23 (holiday) |
| March | Mon 1, Sun 7, Thu 11, Wed 17, Tue 23, Mon 29 |
| April | Sun 4, Fri 9, Thu 15, Wed 21, Tue 27 |
| May | Mon 3 (holiday), Fri 7, Thu 13, Wed 19, Tue 25, Mon 31 |
| June | Sat 5, Fri 11, Thu 17, Wed 23, Tue 29 |
| July | Fri 9, Thu 15, Wed 21, Tue 27 |
| August | Fri 6, Thu 12, Wed 18, Tue 24, Mon 30 |
| September | Sat 4, Fri 10, Thu 16, Wed 22, Tue 28 |
| October | Sat 2, Fri 8, Thu 14, Wed 20, Tue 26, Sat 30 |
| November | Fri 5, Thu 11, Wed 17, Tue 23 (holiday), Sun 28 |
| December | Sat 4, Fri 10, Thu 16, Wed 22 |
Weekends and public holidays are in bold. For couples hunting the opposite, these are the 2027 Butsumetsu dates that fall on a weekend: 24 and 30 January, 28 February, 6 and 28 March, 3 April, 2 and 30 May, and 1 and 29 August. New Year’s Day and Mountain Day (11 August) are Butsumetsu too. Between September and December 2027, not a single weekend falls on one.
Quick Answers About Taian and Lucky Wedding Dates in Japan
What does Taian mean?
Taian (大安) means “great peace.” It’s the luckiest of the six days in the rokuyō cycle printed on Japanese calendars, considered auspicious from morning to night, and the most popular day for weddings in Japan.
How many Taian days are there in 2027?
Sixty. Eleven fall on a weekend and four on public holidays: 11 February, 23 February, 3 May and 23 November.
Is it bad luck to get married on Butsumetsu?
Only if you believe it is. Rokuyō is a calendar custom with no religious basis, and Butsumetsu has nothing to do with the Buddha. Many Japanese couples still avoid it, which is exactly why some venues discount it.
Are wedding venues in Japan cheaper on Butsumetsu?
Often, at venues built around Japanese weddings, such as hotels and wedding halls. Places that host only one celebration a day tend to be scarce on every date, so the season matters far more than the rokuyō.
Do international couples need to follow the rokuyō?
No. Choose the season, the place and the people first. The one exception is family: if a Japanese grandparent would love a Taian wedding, it’s a kind thing to plan around.
How are Taian dates calculated?
Each day’s place in the cycle comes from the old lunar calendar. Add the number of the lunar month to the day of that month and divide by six. When nothing is left over, the day is Taian.
A Date Worth Keeping
The couples we plan for tend to choose their date for reasons no calendar could print: the week the maples turn in Kyoto, the anniversary of a first meeting, the one fortnight when everyone they love can travel. Some of them land on a Taian by accident. Others marry on a Butsumetsu without ever knowing.
Great peace is a lovely thing to wish anyone. It just doesn’t come from the calendar. It comes from a day that has been planned well enough for everyone in it to stop worrying, and that can happen on any date of the year.
