Midsummer Ox Day (土用の丑の日)

Having staff that has lived in Japan all of their lives mixed in with transplants from around the world, our team makes a habit of sharing our cultural celebrations with each other.  Our main workshop leader recently checked his calendar and realized that today, July 24, is ‘Doyou’ Day of one of the Ox Days denoting that summer has truly begun.  There is a second Doyou Day on August 5th which is precisely midsummer and the traditions for the first and second Doyou days of summer are essentially the same.

The Doyou Day or Midsummer Ox Day (土用の丑の日) corresponds to the Chinese Zodiac calendar, and the kanji character 土 (Do) in ‘Doyou’ is soil or earth comes from philosophy of five elements.  Spring is 木 (ki) or wood, summer is 火 (ka) or fire, autumn is 金 (kane) or metal, and winter is defined by the kanji character 水 (mizu) or water.  These represent the seasons themselves, but what about the times as the seasons are changing?  That’s where Doyou gains its significance.  There are those that feel that the earth as an element pales in comparison to the seasons themselves, but they couldn’t be more wrong.  Each element has a part to play, and let’s not forget the earth beneath our feet and the name of this big blue marble that we inhabit.  The earth binds everything together, promotes and protects great changes, and is the basis for germination and growth of seeds sown within it.  When the energy of the four seasons is in flux, the earth bears the friction of the change until the next season completely takes over.  

What are you supposed to do during the hot and humid days of summer?  Why refresh yourself with foods starting with the letter ‘U’, as the kanji for the summer Doyou Day is 「丑」which is translated as ‘Ushi’.  The Doyou summer days are now synonymous with eating eels, unagi in Japanese, hence the correspondence with beating the summer heat.  Another popular traditional Japanese summer treat to beat the heat is picked plums, umeboshi in Japanese.  If it starts with a ‘U’ then it’s recommended for refreshing yourself, and both unagi and umeboshi are popular lunchtime foods or ingredients in rice balls.

That’s what you are supposed to do during the Doyou days, but what about the things you shouldn’t?  I mentioned that the ‘Do’ in ‘Doyou’ means earth, so of course working with soil is a key part of the day’s observance.  In short, you shouldn’t do any work such as ground-breaking, landscaping, painting walls, digging wells, or any other project that disturbs the earth.  Some team members asked, “Shouldn’t we be doing activities linked to waking up or mixing up soil?”  Our workshop leader replied, “No, the earth is more effective promoting and protecting great changed when it’s not disturbed.”  He added, “there is a god in the earth ‘Dokushin’ who gets angry with people who stir up the soil when they should be letting it rest.”  Having a team with such broadly defined interests means that some have links to the construction industry, and of few of them helped renovate one of our workshop leader's traditional Japanese kominka in Niigata, and they know that when a house is built, it’s important to check for bad omen days, or ‘Doyou’ to ensure that there will be no problems associated with the home once its construction is completed.  However, in the fast-paced modern world, complete adherence to the precepts of the ‘Doyou’ would be inconvenient to the point where it wouldn’t be feasible for construction schedules, so there are flexible days where the gods are considered to have left the earth.  On these days, for necessities sake, construction continues.  In the case of an important or immovable construction day, shrines such as Waseda Shrine offer prayers on those days to appease the gods and allow construction or other earth moving activities. 

If you felt like observing Doyou Day today but couldn’t quite make it work, don’t forget you get a second chance on August 5th.  I recommend a healthy helping of unagi to keep the heat and humidity at bay.