Geshi (夏至): Summer Solstice

What Geshi means

Geshi is a chūki (中気, “middle”) term and falls in the middle of the Horse month. In the old lunisolar calendar, the month containing Geshi was the 5th month.

Customs and seasonal food around Geshi

Hangeshō (around 2 July), a few days later, was the traditional deadline for finishing rice planting; the last kō of Geshi has the same name. In season: corn and watermelon.

The 72 kō of Geshi

Each solar term is divided again into three periods of about five days, the 72 kō (七十二候, “microseasons”). The names here follow the 1874 Ryakuhon-reki almanac. The first person to adapt the Chinese names to Japan's own climate was the astronomer Shibukawa Harumi, in the Jōkyō calendar of 1685.

1st kō: Self-heal withers (乃東枯)

Self-heal (utsubogusa), which sprouted around the winter solstice, begins to wither. It pairs with “self-heal sprouts” at the winter solstice and was added in Japan. Geshi is the longest day, though in many years the rainy season hides the sun. Self-heal is also a herbal medicine.

2nd kō: Irises bloom (菖蒲華)

Irises bloom. Shōbu here means Japanese irises (ayame and hanashōbu), not the sweet flag used at the Boys' Festival. This kō replaced the Senmyō calendar's “cicadas begin to sing”. As the saying goes, telling the similar iris species apart is not easy. Iris gardens are at their best.

3rd kō: Crow-dipper sprouts (半夏生)

Crow-dipper (karasubishaku) sprouts, a name shared with the Senmyō calendar. Hangeshō is also one of the extra seasonal days, the traditional deadline for rice planting. In the Kansai region people eat octopus, said to wish for rice roots as firm as octopus legs.

See all 24 solar terms and 72 kō, or today’s calendar.