Japan's 72 Microseasons - #41

"Things Begin To Cool Down"

August 28 - September 2
天地始粛
てんち はじめて さむし
Tenchi hajimete samushi
”Things begin to cool down”

Relief is in sight. No matter how it feels, the heat can’t go on forever.

Kō 41 sits in the middle of the Sekki called Shosho¹ (処暑), which means something like “at the boundaries of heat” and (allegedly) marks the apex of summer’s temperatures. From the next Sekki, things should be headed towards autumn proper. This kō also includes the “210th Day” (二百十日), which according to the old lunar calendar marks the start of autumn². These designated days are called zassetsu (雑節) and cover important harvest days, religious rights, and seasonal changes.

However, this year was the first August in Japan’s records where every day in August reached temperatures over 30° C (or, if you recall from an earlier post, where each day was a manatsubi/真夏日). And looking at the current forecasts, highs for most of the country are staying over that limit for at least the rest of the week, leading to renewed discussions in Japanese media about our quickly changing climate.

the countrywide forecast for September 8th, the day after Shosho finishes

You may notice that on the eastern coast of the country, there’s a pretty high chance of rain. Well, another thing that the 210th Day marks is the height of Japan’s typhoon season, where crop-damaging storms can be expected to roll through with some regularity. More than just saying “autumn’s coming soon!” the day is a heads-up to prepare, to batten down and wait to harvest your grains a bit longer. This was expected to alleviate somewhat by the 220th Day (二百二十日), although again, climate change is making storms bigger and more frequent for the archipelago.

Still, cooler fronts³ are crawling down from the north, and will (eventually) settle in for the rest of the country, temperatures dipping down until the heat of summer is hard to remember and very much missed. The heat that linger over the country until the autumnal equinox (秋分), zansho⁴, literally means “leftover heat.”

And while these changes are more keenly and suddenly felt in the mountains or up north in Hokkaidō, things are inevitably cooling off for the whole Land of the Rising Sun. Indeed the first part of this kō’s name, tenchi (天地), is a kanji character combining “heaven” and “earth,” and can mean “the realm,” “the natural environment,” or simply “top to bottom.”⁵

Then we have a familiar 始, which we’ve seen in a handful of kō and means “begin,” “start” et cetera. The last one, however, isn’t often used for weather. Shuku (粛) means “solemn, respectful, quiet” and usually appears in words like genshuku (厳粛, solemnity), jishuku (自粛, self-restraint), seishuku (静粛, silence). If you applied that to the overbearing solar heat of the heavens above? Well, maybe they’ve decided to start exercising a little self-control instead of running wild with the thermostat.

(@tokima_t on Twitter)

Still, after a long day in the still-lingering heat—especially if there’s storms on the radar—the best thing today remains the same as it’s been for thousands of years: get comfy and take a break with some nice food and pretty scenery.

● Seasonal fruit
budō, ぶどう, grapes

● Seasonal seafood
shiroguchi, シログチ, silver croaker

● Seasonal plant
susuki, ススキ, pampas grass⁶

(wild budō, shiroguchi for sale at a supermarket, susuki blooming on hillsides)

Enjoying the seasons is all about timing. Most people wouldn’t wear shorts in the snow, or plan a picnic for a typhoon, but nothing beats a refreshing dip in the ocean during summer. Meeting the world around us on its own schedule, and appreciating what’s here when it’s happening is the best way to live with the seasons, I feel. With the microseasons happening every few days, there’s plenty of opportunity to see and feel and hear what’s out there changing and think about how you want to experience it.

Seventy-two, to be exact.

See you next kō~

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[Images & info by kurashikata.com, kurashi-no-hotorisya.jp, 543life.com, and Wikipedia except where otherwise noted]

1. Not to be confused with Shōsho (小暑), the Sekki back in July which means “minor heat”

2. “210 days from what?” you may well ask—just like the 88th Night, it’s counted from Risshun, the start of spring and first day of the seasonal year according to the Koyomi

3. In Japan, this front is called the akisame-senzen (秋雨前線), or “autumn rain front”

4. See: Kō 37

5. Fragile packages are labeled tenchi-muyō (天地無用/“this side up”), and yes that is the same as the title of the ‘90s anime series and no I am not entirely sure as to how it relates

6. Susuki is the plant representing August in traditional hanafuda card decks