SHIKI【FOUR SEASONS】– category –

Uchimizu Not purification, but cooling the air itself FOUR SEASONS／SUMMER | MEGURU STILLNESS JAPAN Uchimizu is a traditional Japanese custom dating back to the Edo period, in which water is sprinkled on the ground—such as in gardens or ...

Kotatsu A fire meant for gathering, not heating FOUR SEASONS／WINTER | MEGURU STILLNESS JAPAN At a grandmother's house, the kotatsu has not moved in decades — the same low table, the same heavy quilt tucked around its legs, positioned in...

Suzumushi to Matsumushi A tradition of listening for insects FOUR SEASONS／AUTUMN | MEGURU STILLNESS JAPAN A man stops walking, mid-sentence, on an ordinary residential street. His companion stops too, out of habit rather than understand...

Jūgoya to Jūsanya The aesthetics of viewing the moon twice FOUR SEASONS／AUTUMN | MEGURU STILLNESS JAPAN She returns to the same spot on the same veranda, exactly one lunar month after the first night. Nothing about the setting has chang...

Shukakusai A season of public gratitude FOUR SEASONS／AUTUMN | MEGURU STILLNESS JAPAN Before the drums start, there is an hour of quieter work: young men in matching happi coats checking the ropes on a mikoshi, an elderly shrine caretake...

Momiji-gari Chasing the color front across Japan FOUR SEASONS／AUTUMN | MEGURU STILLNESS JAPAN From a train window somewhere in the mountains, the tree line arrives in three distinct bands. At the highest elevation, the maples have alrea...

Tsukimi The etiquette of moon-viewing, and the luxury of doing nothing FOUR SEASONS／AUTUMN | MEGURU STILLNESS JAPAN On a small apartment balcony, a low tray has been set out: a short pyramid of white dumplings, a few stalks of pampas gr...

春 HARU — SPRING Prologue A single plum branch, still mostly bare, holds one blossom that opened before the others thought it was safe to. It is a small, almost reckless act — winter has not fully released its grip, and yet something has...

冬 FUYU — WINTER Prologue Snow does not announce itself the way rain does. It arrives already quiet, and quiets everything further — footsteps softened, traffic muffled, the usual edges of the world blurred into something gentler than th...

秋 AKI — AUTUMN Prologue The change announces itself in the mornings first — a coolness at the edge of the air that was not there the day before, arriving without ceremony, as if it had simply been waiting its turn. The cicadas, which fo...