Zodiac Translation?

[SwordGuyJoe]

Can anyone help me out with this one? I'm crap at zodiac unless I can find it on Dr. Stein's site. Obviously it's Showa ?? Nen haru auspicious day.

 

Thanks!

 

[Ray Singer]

Perhaps Kanoe Saru 庚申. If correct I believe that would be 1980 - Shôwa 55.

 

Best regards,

Ray

[SwordGuyJoe]

Thanks Ray. I looked and found this (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagenary_cycle) that put it at Showa 7 9 (which 79 obviously doesn't make sense and the sword is newer than Showa 7+9=16 so that didn't make sense either). Can you help me understand how/where to find this in the future? I don't mind asking dumb questions, but that a nengo baffled me is embarrassing!

[SteveM]

Hello Joe,

 

You need to go a bit farther down on that site, where it shows all the combinations of the zodiac signs and what they correspond to in the gregorian calendar. Look for this particular combination on line 57 after the Twelve Earthly Branches chart. The kanji don't represent individual numerals, they represent a position on a 60-year cycle that keeps repeating. 

 

Since Shōwa lasted longer than 60 years, there are a few zodiac combinations that repeat themselves within Shōwa. But Shōwa is an outlier, and usually eras are much, much shorter, and so there is no ambiguity about what year the combination refers to. 

[Ray Singer]

http://www.sengokudaimyo.com/Archive/miscellany/yearsinnihon_e.html

[SwordGuyJoe]

Excellent! Thank you so much guys.