The 72 micro-seasons of Japan — and the year it stopped watching<br>Micro-seasons · 七十二候<br>Japan named 72 seasons. In 2021 it stopped officially watching most of them.<br>For over a thousand years the Japanese almanac has split the year into 72 kō — five-day seasons, each with a poetic name and its own words. The Meteorological Agency tracked many of the phenomena they name. Then, in 2021, it discontinued 94% of those observations. Here are all 72 — and the few the climate has measurably moved.<br>94%<br>of phenological observations discontinued in 2021
72<br>micro-seasons in the almanac
10<br>of the 72 still have a usable JMA record to read
菖蒲華Irises bloom<br>春 Spring<br>夏 Summer<br>秋 Autumn<br>冬 Winter<br>— solid still observed · dashed dropped 2021 · faint never observed<br>earlier later<br>All 72 — pick one<br>東風解凍East wind melts the ice<br>黄鶯睍睆Bush warblers start to sing<br>魚上氷Fish emerge from the ice<br>土脉潤起Rain moistens the soil<br>霞始靆Mist starts to linger<br>草木萌動Grass and trees sprout<br>蟄虫啓戸Hibernating insects emerge<br>桃始笑Peach blossoms begin to bloom<br>菜虫化蝶Caterpillars become butterflies<br>雀始巣Sparrows start to nest<br>桜始開Cherry blossoms start to bloom<br>雷乃発声Distant thunder sounds<br>玄鳥至Swallows return<br>鴻雁北Wild geese fly north<br>虹始見First rainbows appear<br>葭始生Reeds begin to sprout<br>霜止出苗Last frost, rice seedlings grow<br>牡丹華Peonies bloom<br>蛙始鳴Frogs start singing<br>蚯蚓出Earthworms surface<br>竹笋生Bamboo shoots sprout<br>蚕起食桑Silkworms feast on mulberry<br>紅花栄Safflowers bloom<br>麦秋至Wheat ripens<br>螳螂生Praying mantises hatch<br>腐草為蛍Rotten grass becomes fireflies<br>梅子黄Plums turn yellow<br>乃東枯Self-heal withers<br>菖蒲華Irises bloom<br>半夏生Crow-dipper sprouts<br>温風至Warm winds blow<br>蓮始開Lotuses bloom<br>鷹乃学習Hawks learn to fly<br>桐始結花Paulownia trees produce seeds<br>土潤溽暑Earth is damp, air is humid<br>大雨時行Great rains sometimes fall<br>涼風至Cool winds arrive<br>寒蝉鳴Evening cicadas sing<br>蒙霧升降Thick fog descends<br>綿柎開Cotton bolls open<br>天地始粛Heat starts to die down<br>禾乃登Rice ripens<br>草露白Dew glistens white on grass<br>鶺鴒鳴Wagtails start to sing<br>玄鳥去Swallows leave<br>雷乃収声Thunder ceases<br>蟄虫坏戸Insects hole up underground<br>水始涸Rice fields are drained<br>鴻雁来Wild geese return<br>菊花開Chrysanthemums bloom<br>蟋蟀在戸Crickets chirp by the door<br>霜始降Frost starts to fall<br>霎時施Light rains sometimes fall<br>楓蔦黄Maples and ivy turn yellow<br>山茶始開Sasanqua camellias bloom<br>地始凍Land starts to freeze<br>金盞香Daffodils bloom<br>虹蔵不見Rainbows hide<br>朔風払葉North wind strips the leaves<br>橘始黄Tachibana citrus turns yellow<br>閉塞成冬Cold sets in, winter begins<br>熊蟄穴Bears hibernate<br>鱖魚群Salmon gather and swim upstream<br>乃東生Self-heal sprouts<br>麋角解Deer shed their antlers<br>雪下出麦Wheat sprouts under snow<br>芹乃栄Parsley flourishes<br>水泉動Springs begin to thaw<br>雉始雊Pheasants start to call<br>款冬華Butterburs bud<br>水沢腹堅Ice thickens on streams<br>鶏始乳Hens start to lay eggs
No. 29 · 夏至 げし · Summer<br>菖蒲華あやめはなさくayame hana saku<br>Irises bloom<br>Never instrumentally observed<br>紫の菖蒲が咲きます。<br>Purple irises bloom.
菖蒲あやめayameiris<br>紫むらさきmurasakipurple<br>花はなhanaflower<br>Learn these →
What micro-season were you born in?<br>Pick any date — a birthday, an anniversary — to find its kō, its words, and whether the climate has nudged it.
How to read the wheel<br>Each of the 72 segments is one kō, tinted by its season around the ring.<br>A solid edge means Japan still observes the phenomenon; dashed means it was dropped in the 2021 cut; faint means it was never instrumentally watched.<br>A coloured dot marks the 10 kō with a real measured shift — green for earlier, orange for later.<br>The highlighted segment is today’s kō, the one we’re living in right now.
The drift that remains<br>The phenomena still on record — the surviving plants plus the long animal series frozen at the 2021 cut — are moving, but only a few clearly, and not all the same way. Some now arrive earlier , others later ; many are too short or too noisy a record to read with confidence. Open any kō and “see the data” to judge the fit yourself.<br>By JMA records, the maples of 楓蔦黄 now turn yellow about 19.7 days later than they did in 1953. Cherry blossom, meanwhile, keeps creeping earlier.
Sources & method<br>Calendar: the Japanese 本朝七十二候 (NAOJ 暦計算室). Phenology and the 2021 cut: the Japan Meteorological Agency’s 生物季節観測 累年値 (Doi et al., Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2021). Each drift figure is the slope of a pooled per-station anomaly regression — each station’s date minus its own 1953– mean, across every station-year — so the trend a kō shows is exactly the number cited; open any mapped kō to see its scatter and R². Kō without an authoritative series are shown as structure only — never an invented number.<br>Download all 72 kō as CSV ↓<br>This map is made by the people behind JIVX, which turns a fascination with Japan into the language itself — short daily sentences, graded the way a teacher would, not flashcards.<br>Start learning Japanese free →Or learn the words of the seasons →
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