Have you heard of Japanese micro seasons? They offer a meaningful way of marking subtle changes in the natural world.
The seasons are defined by familiar sights – the mellow fruits of autumn, the cool mornings of winter, the bold blooms of spring, and the balmy nights of summer. But these quarters only tell part of the story. Tuning into Japanese-style micro seasons could help you to slow down, notice the small changes, and reconnect with the environment around you.
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Tiny changes
The traditional Japanese calendar contains a whopping 72 micro seasons, each lasting around five days. These mini segments honour the sometimes-overlooked signs of transformation that happen on a much smaller scale than the larger shifts of spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
In this system, originally based on the ancient Chinese calendar, 24 sekki, or main seasons, are broken up into three further kō (micro seasons). Each kō is named after the natural event that it honours. The beginning of the summer season, for example, which is called Rikka, is made up of kō that translate as ‘Frogs start singing’, ‘Worms surface’, and ‘Bamboo shoots sprout’. Some kō seem familiar – August’s Suzukaze itaru,
or ‘Cool winds blow’ is pretty recognisable – while others, like early June’s Kamakiri shōzu, or ‘Praying mantises hatch’, are a bit more specific to Japan.
The philosophy behind the micro seasons is that the natural world moves in small but predictable sequences. It’s so versatile that, just as it was adapted from the Chinese calendar to suit the Japanese landscape, it can be applied to almost any corner of the world, including your own.
Miniature Miracles
With this in mind, in 2020, nature writer Lev Parikian began work on a book, Light Rains Sometimes Fall, charting the micro seasons he observed around his own home. ‘I’d worried that I might struggle to find things to
write about – I live in a fairly average urban area, after all,’ he says. ‘But when you start looking and asking questions, you see interesting things everywhere.’
Lev began to notice the subtlest signs of progress and to wonder what made them happen: ‘Patches of moss – how does moss grow? A branch covered in grey-silver lichen – what, in fact, is lichen? Asking questions, and looking for the answers, opened up the natural world for me and made me look at my normal local patch with new eyes.
Seeing things afresh is part of the beauty of observing micro seasons. There’s lots of research backing the benefits of spending time in nature, but looking closely at what’s new in your immediate environment creates a special bond with the land and local ecosystem.
Of course, it’s not just gardens that feel the changes. Fields, rainforests, houseplants, parks, bushland – even the weeds that grow through the cracks in concrete – they all build a picture of how the year is unfolding. Lev’s seasons weren’t filled with the same flowers and birds as the Japanese versions, but he found equivalents. In Japan, 9–13 February is known as Kōō kenkan su – ‘Bush warblers start singing in the mountains’. Lev named this time ‘Dunnock song defies traffic noise’.
Tuning into subtle seasonal shifts is about enjoying the rhythm of life around you, even when it seems unremarkable. It’s about appreciating those brief moments of beauty – the nest building, seed scattering, fruit ripening – before they pass, and the year’s cycle rolls on.
Create your own calendar
Making up your own micro seasons is simple – all it takes is time. Here are six steps to get you started, with a calendar printable for recording your observations and the names you come up with for your seasons.
- Feel your way. Not sure anything’s happening? Look at the sky and notice the clouds. Sense the atmosphere. Pay attention to light and moisture levels. Sometimes a change is about ambience and mood.
- Keep a record. Find a way of recording the natural world that you enjoy. A photo-diary or a series of voice notes can be fun. Or, if you like writing, try diary entries – they don’t need to be long, just a few sentences or key words.
- Go big on bugs. The Japanese micro seasons feature a lot of creepy-crawlies. Don’t forget to check for larvae and eggs, and notice if there are large numbers of a particular species about.
- Use all your senses. Don’t rely solely on what you see. Sounds and smells, such as bird calls and aromatic plants, also indicate the passing of time.
- Bring it home. You might want to pick up some of the things that you find – fallen leaves, feathers, flowers – and start a collection. (Make sure not to disturb any wildlife or remove items they need for nesting. If you’re not sure, an alternative is to take pictures of your finds.)
- Stand and stare. Take time every few days to stop and notice what’s around you. The idea is to switch yourself on to the natural world.
Download calendar pages to create your own micro seasons below.
