Also called "Rokki (the six radiances)", it is known as a calendar system that predicts the fortune of each day by assigning them to one of the six classifications: "Senshou", "Tomobiki", "Senbu", "Butsumetsu", "Taian", or "Shakkou".
Senshou originally meant "the earlier the better", this day's morning is lucky and the afternoon is unlucky.
Tomobiki is considered to have lucky mornings and evenings, but unlucky afternoons. It originally meant a "day without victory or defeat", as friends would be pulling against each other, but it came to mean "to pull away from your friends", and it is now considered a bad day to hold funerals and other ceremonies.
Senbu means "the earlier the worse", this day's morning is unlucky and the afternoon is lucky.
Butsumetsu is said to be the "day when all things perish", everything will be unlucky. Celebrations are especially to be avoided.
Taian is a day of "great peace" and is considered good luck in all matters.
Shakkou originated from Onmyoudou's unlucky days, generally misfortunate outside of midday.
According to popular belief, Rokuyou was invented by Zhuge Liang of Romance of the Three Kingdoms fame, and is sometimes referred to as the "Kongming Six-Day Fortune". In reality, however, they are based on the "Six Waters Time Assessment (Rikujinjika)", a time-based divination method of good and bad fortune invented by Li Chunpeng, a Chinese Tang Dynasty calendar scholar.
The Six Waters Time Assessment was introduced to Japan around the end of the Kamakura period (1185-1333), and eventually changed from a method of divining good or bad luck at a certain time of day to a method of divining good or bad luck on a certain day, and spread to the public from the late Edo period to the Meiji period.
The Rokuyou are determined in the order of Senshou, Tomobiki, Senbu, Butsumetsu, Taian, and Shakkou, and the days of each month are also determined in that order. In other words, the Rokuyou are the same every year on the old Japanese lunisolar calendar.
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