Sensing The Seasons
- Ryoko
- Aug 28
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 3
The word season comes from the Latin “satio”, meaning “sowing” or “planting.” In its earliest use, a season was not simply about the passing of time, but about the cycle of fertility, cultivation, and harvest. People marked the year not by numbers, but by what the land offered and what work needed to be done.
To live with the seasons is to live within this great rhythm—expansion in spring, abundance in summer, gathering in autumn, and retreat in winter. Our ancestors were deeply attuned to these cycles. Farmers sowed seeds in spring, knowing that the rains and longer days would awaken life. Summer was a season of tending and growth, of animals birthing and plants reaching their fullness. Autumn brought harvest festivals, granaries filled with grain, fruits dried, and meat salted to prepare for the lean months. Winter, the time of cold and scarcity, became the season of story, of fire, of preservation, and of rest before the turning of the wheel again.
Equinox in Japanese Buddhist Rituals
Ohigan (literally “the other shore”) is a Japanese Buddhist tradition observed during the spring and autumn equinoxes, when day and night are nearly equal in length. It is believed that at this time, the world of the living and the realm of the ancestors come closest to one another. From this belief emerged the custom of expressing gratitude, offering prayers to ancestors, and honoring nature. The observance is thought to have originated in the Nara period (early 9th century) and, by the Edo period, had developed into a widespread practice.
Seasonal Olfactory Subscription
A multi-sensory archive of seasonal transitions
Honoring all that our ancestors observed, practiced, and passed down in attunement with the Earth’s rhythms, we have created Cycle of Scent, a seasonal olfactory subscription. Each composition, released four times a year, two solstices and two equinoxes, captures the essence of the moment. Diffused through evolving forms such as liquid, solid, air, and fire, these scents become temporal markers, evoking presence, vitality, and remembrance.
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