Shunbun (春分): Spring Equinox

What Shunbun means

Shunbun is a chūki (中気, “middle”) term and falls in the middle of the Rabbit month. In the old lunisolar calendar, the month containing Shunbun was the 2nd month.

Customs and seasonal food around Shunbun

The middle day of the spring higan, when people offer botamochi rice cakes to their ancestors. In season: bamboo shoots and sea bream.

The 72 kō of Shunbun

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: Sparrows start to nest (雀始巣)

Sparrows gather dry grass and twigs and begin building nests under the eaves. The Senmyō calendar's first kō of the equinox was “swallows arrive”; the sparrow is a Japanese addition. On the spring equinox, day and night are nearly equal.

2nd kō: Cherry blossoms start to bloom (桜始開)

The cherry trees begin to flower, a kō found only in Japan. News of blossoms arrives from every region and hanami season begins. One theory says sa in sakura is the god of the rice fields and kura his seat, and that people once timed farm work by the blossoms. Flowering dates vary greatly by region.

3rd kō: Distant thunder (雷乃発声)

Spring thunder begins to rumble, a name shared with the Senmyō calendar. Spring thunder is said to wake hibernating insects. The weather is changeable, so watch for sudden showers. Thunder was believed to make the rice ripen, and some say it gave its name to inazuma, lightning (“rice spouse”).

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