Keichitsu (啓蟄): Awakening of Insects
The insects that have spent the winter underground open their earthen doors and come out.
| Year | Date and time (Japan Standard Time) |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Mar 5, 2025 (Wed) 17:07 |
| 2026 | Mar 5, 2026 (Thu) 22:59 |
| 2027 | Mar 6, 2027 (Sat) 4:39 |
Times are found from the sun's apparent longitude (Japan Standard Time).
What Keichitsu means
Keichitsu is a setsu (節, “joint”) term: in the eto calendar the Rabbit month begins on this day. In Four Pillars and Nine Star Ki, the month's eto and star change at Keichitsu.
Customs and seasonal food around Keichitsu
The straw wraps tied round garden trees for winter are taken off. In season: Japanese parsley and horsetail shoots.
The 72 kō of Keichitsu
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.
| Kō | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 蟄虫啓戸 | Hibernating insects open their doors |
| 2nd | 桃始笑 | Peach blossoms start to smile |
| 3rd | 菜虫化蝶 | Caterpillars become butterflies |
1st kō: Hibernating insects open their doors (蟄虫啓戸)
Insects that spent the winter underground open their doors and come out, which is where the name Keichitsu comes from. “Insects” here also includes frogs and snakes. The Senmyō calendar began Keichitsu with “peach trees bloom”; Japan put the insects first. A good time to start work in the garden.
2nd kō: Peach blossoms start to smile (桃始笑)
Peach trees begin to bloom. In old Japanese, flowers opening was described as “smiling”, a more poetic version of the Senmyō calendar's “peaches bloom”. Peach was thought to ward off evil and is essential to the Doll Festival. It is also the season of graduations and new beginnings.
3rd kō: Caterpillars become butterflies (菜虫化蝶)
Chrysalises that survived the winter open, and cabbage white butterflies start to flutter. Na-mushi are the caterpillars that eat greens, and butterflies over fields of rapeseed are a classic spring scene. The Senmyō calendar had “hawks turn into doves” here. The spring higan is approaching.