Risshun (立春): Start of Spring

What Risshun means

Risshun is a setsu (節, “joint”) term: in the eto calendar the Tiger month begins on this day. In Four Pillars and Nine Star Ki, the month's eto and star change at Risshun. Risshun is also the start of the year, so the year's eto changes at Risshun too.

Customs and seasonal food around Risshun

The day after Setsubun. People put up “Risshun daikichi” charms and welcome the new year's luck. In season: butterbur buds and rapeseed blossoms.

The 72 kō of Risshun

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: East winds melt the ice (東風解凍)

The east wind that announces spring begins to melt the ice that formed in winter. This kō marks the start of the year, and some Zen temples put up “Risshun daikichi” charms on the morning of Risshun. The name is the same as in the Chinese Senmyō calendar. It is still cold, but the sunlight is starting to feel like spring.

2nd kō: Bush warblers start singing (黄鶯睍睆)

The Japanese bush warbler (uguisu) begins its lovely song in the hills. The Senmyō calendar had “hibernating insects stir” here; the warbler is a Japanese change. Called the “bird that announces spring”, the uguisu goes together with plum blossoms, though in many places you hear its first song a little later.

3rd kō: Fish emerge from the ice (魚上氷)

The water warms and fish leap up through cracks in the ice. The name is the same as in the Senmyō calendar. Plum blossoms begin to appear, and in some years the old lunar New Year fell around now. Early-spring delicacies such as icefish come into season.

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