Like many countries, Japan uses a 12-month calendar. The names are very simple. January is literally “Month one”, February is “Month two”, etc.
However, before the Meiji Restoration (mid-1800s) it was common to use an older 12-month system. These months’ names referenced the weather and the seasons (similar to the French Revolutionary calendar).
The month 弥生 (yayoi) “March” means “the month with increasing new life”.
This old system is based on a lunar calendar with exactly 28 days in each month, beginning and ending on the new moon. An obvious disadvantage to this system is that the months don’t fit into a year exactly, and so the months will get earlier and earlier each year and there won’t actually be any new life during “the month with increasing new life”. So every so often the calendar had to be adjusted a little.
This is also first name of the artist 彌生草間 (Yayoi Kusama). Her name uses the older, more complex version of the 弥 kanji – 彌.
Calligraphy by Vicky 