"Japan Has Four Seasons..."

If you've ever lived in Japan you've heard this refrain many times and Japanese people seem surprised that there are four distinct seasons in places like Washington state. Sawa Kurotani looks at this idea in her column for The Daily Yomiuri, Behind The Paper Screen, but not as critically as I thought she might:

Japan is one of the few regions of the world that is blessed with four distinct seasons--at least that was what I often heard when I was growing up. Places like California, I was also told, had no seasons at all, and the weather was pretty much the same all year round. Seasonal changes were so much a part of my world back then that it sounded like some fantastic story. How can they not have four seasons?

I have lived in many different parts of the United States--Oregon, Illinois, Texas, Colorado, Ohio, New Jersey, North Carolina and Southern California--and experienced diverse climates that I never did in Japan. It is true that many of those places don't have the "four seasons" as we know them in Japan. Southern California, where I live now, certainly does enjoy mild temperatures and sunny weather most of the year, just as I heard a long time ago in Japan. It doesn't take long for people to get used to one bright sunny day after another, as I myself found very quickly, and we complain bitterly at any aberration from our expectation of perfect weather.

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Seasonality is in the eyes of the beholder, not in the natural weather patterns in themselves. Kisetsukan, or literally, "the feel of the season," is one of the key concepts in Japan's cultural and artistic traditions. For example, haiku poetry places a strong emphasis on the seasons, and every piece must contain an appropriate kigo, or "season word." (There is even a book that lists all recognized kigo by season.)

The sensitivity toward seasonal change also informs mundane details of everyday life as well. There are food items that mark each season. A new tea crop in May, the katsuo bonito season in early summer and a new crop of rice in October are just a few examples that every Japanese would recognize. My parents--who may be somewhat old-fashioned but in no way extraordinary--religiously observe koromogae (seasonal wardrobe change) and would not even think of wearing anything made of linen until after the tsuyu, or early summer rainy season, for example.

Compared to extreme weather patterns in many parts of the United States, seasonal changes in much of Japan are quite moderate. Kisetsukan, in fact, produces four distinct seasons through a series of cultural practices that mark otherwise ambiguous seasonal transitions. Such sensitivity is impractical, however, if you live in an unforgiving climate, where adaptation to extreme hot and cold is, literally, a matter of life or death. From the Thanksgiving story, in which immigrants barely escaped starvation during a harsh winter, to Paul Bunyan, a mythical folklore figure whose tall tales often revolved around extreme weather, American folk tradition is full of stories about human struggles against the inhospitable natural environment. Fortitude in the face of nature, it seems, is still deeply ingrained in the collective psyche of Americans, who seem to lack sensitivity toward seasonal changes, unlike Japanese who value their kisetsukan.

Comments

[Arie C van der Hoeven]

We have four seasons here in Seattle. Cold rainy, warm rain with sun breaks, hot dry (2 months if lucky), then warm rain with sun breaks again. Repeat cycle.

That aside, I miss how the food changes with the seasons in Japan. I love Kaki-furai and am always dissappointed when I arrive in June each year and can't find fried oysters, saba, or other fall favorites of mine.

We may have four seasons here, but not acknowledge it as deeply.

[MC]

Arie, I agree with you on your main point. I love the seasonal food and the appreciation of the seasons through events like "koyo" and "hanami."

It's just the arrogance of the thought that there's only one little island nation in the world that truly understands and appreciates these four seasons that bothers me.

[Edward]

The Japanese seem to be quite sensitive to all sorts of subtle things - not just the chnage of the seasons. I would think that the whole of Northern America/Europe/Asia have four disctinct seasons and have had their culture heavily influenced by them - as someone who spent his childhood in England I was always surprised by the assumption of my students that Japan was unique in this way. Trouble is, coming from Australia (as I officially was while on JET) I could only really lay claim to about 1 to 2 seasons - summer + a half hearted winter merging with a hardly noticable spring - so I didn't feel like I was able to combat this notion effectively.