Totenroku - Stargazing Journal

Reconnect with the stars through the lens of history. Totenroku is a cultural journal and stargazing companion that brings the ancient Eastern sky to your modern world.

EXPLORE A UNIQUE CELESTIAL PERSPECTIVE

While most apps show the sky through Western zodiacs, Totenroku is the first to render the heavens using the classical Chinese celestial pole system. Experience the sky as it was observed for millennia — centered on the North Star, featuring the Three Enclosures, the 28 Lunar Mansions, and the traditional Big Dipper.

This isn't just a theme; it's a window into a vast astronomical heritage once used across East Asia to track time and document history.

IMMERSIVE AR STARGAZING

Simply point your phone at the sky to identify the planets and traditional constellations. Every star is annotated with its classical name, transforming your screen into a living map of ancient wisdom.

TIME TRAVEL THROUGH THE AGES

What did the sky look like a thousand years ago? Set any date from 1000 BCE to the far future and see the alignment of the stars exactly as history recorded them.

• Verify celestial events mentioned in ancient texts (eclipses, comets, conjunctions).

• Rediscover the night sky from the dates of world-changing historical events.

• The app includes the original iPhone Keynote (Jan 9, 2007) as a preloaded historical event to explore.

YOUR CULTURAL JOURNAL

Document the significant moments of your life with a layer of astronomical context. Every journal entry is automatically tagged with:

• The GanZhi (Stem-Branch) time notation — a traditional East Asian method of documenting time.

• The Lunar Mansion (Moon Phase) occupied at that exact moment.

• Beautifully designed sharing cards to capture the "starry context" of a birth, a meeting, or a memory.

【 Read People & Events Through the Stars 】

Record a person to reveal the stem-branch structural patterns of their birth moment — from Triple Noble Star to Flying Pegasus, 85 traditional cultural pattern combinations at a glance. Record an event to explore its corresponding I Ching hexagram and line commentary, uncovering the wisdom annotations left by the ancients. Every entry becomes a dialogue across millennia.

GANZHI CLOCK

A real-time clock that tracks the current moment using the traditional 12-branch (Shichen) system. It’s a functional piece of cultural art on your device.

A DEPTH OF REFERENCE

Dive deeper into classical concepts with built-in educational guides:

• The symbolism of the 28 Lunar Mansions.

• The structure of the Three Enclosures system.

• The mechanics of the Stem-Branch (GanZhi) cycle and its historical use in calendars.

• Philosophical structural analysis (Five Elements & Yi Jing) presented as academic reference.

PRIVACY & SIMPLICITY

Your data is yours. Journal entries are stored locally. No accounts required for core features. Optional Apple Sign-in for cloud backup.

Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Privacy Policy: https://jumbled-sail-a2c.notion.site/Suimei-Privacy-Policy-2dbb50f3aa3580a7bbb8f6542bd726ca