Alexis Agliano Sanborn is a humanities specialist in Japanese studies. Her work has been published in Gastronimica, Kyoto Journal, Global Asia, and a forthcoming MIT Press book chapter. She directed the award-winning documentary short Nourishing Japan (2020), which explores the impact of food education and the school lunch system on Japanese communities. Sanborn has pursued her interest in seasons and seasonality through her artwork, teaching herself how to forage, and researching the history of time reckoning and seasonal motifs in Japanese culture and artwork. Together with Kit Lanthier, Sanborn launched the podcast Season by Season: An Audio Odyssey through Nature, which explores the 24 seasons of the Japanese lunar calendar through prose, poetry, history, and sound. In 2025, she is leading a 24 Seasons Art Cohort to help people discover a closer relationship to the natural world through nature journaling.

Kit Lanthier is a voracious reader who loves to get lost in the written word. After graduating from Mills College with a major in International Relations, Lanthier spent three years living and working in Japan. While in Japan, she pursued another of her passions—tea—and became a student of the Omotesenke School of Tea, the study of which she continues even after moving back home to California. Calming moments in the tea room, along with her lifelong love of literature, have inspired her study and practice of haiku, which she composes regularly. Together with Alexis Agliano Sanborn, Lanthier launched the podcast Season by Season: An Audio Odyssey through Nature, which explores the 24 seasons of the Japanese lunar calendar through prose, poetry, history, and sound. Lanthier lives with her husband and cats in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she spends her weekends learning how to garden, motivated by memories of her grandmothers.

Foreword: Seasonal Wonders
Preface
Introduction
How to Use This Book
The Twenty-Four Seasons of Japan

Spring | Haru
Chapter 1: The Beginning of Spring | Risshun (February 4–18)
Chapter 2: Snow Becomes Rain | Usui (February 19–March 4)
Chapter 3: Wintering Insects Awake | Keichitsu (March 5–19)
Chapter 4: Spring Equinox | Shunbun (March 20–April 4)
Chapter 5: Clear and Bright | Seimei (April 5–19)
Chapter 6: Grain Rain | Koku’u (April 20–May 4)

Summer | Natsu
Chapter 7: The Beginning of Summer | Rikka (May 5–20)
Chapter 8: Fine Weather | Shman (May 21–June 5)
Chapter 9: The Time of Planting Grains | Bshu (June 6–20)
Chapter 10: The Summer Solstice | Geshi (June 21–July 6)
Chapter 11: Growing Heat | Shsho (July 7–22)
Chapter 12: Sweltering Heat | Taisho (July 23–August 6)

Autumn | Aki
Chapter 13: The Beginning of Autumn | Rissh (August 7–22)
Chapter 14: Fading Heat | Shosho (August 23–September 6)
Chapter 15: White Dew | Hakuro (September 7–22)
Chapter 16: Autumn Equinox | Shbun (September 23–October 7)
Chapter 17: Cold Dew | Kanro (October 8–22).
Chapter 18: Frost Descends | Sk (October 23–November 6)

Winter | Fuyu
Chapter 19: The Beginning of Winter | Ritt (November 7–21)
Chapter 20: Light Snow | Shsetsu (November 22–December 6)
Chapter 21: Heavy Snow | Taisetsu (December 7–21)
Chapter 22: Winter Solstice | Tji (December 22–January 4)
Chapter 23: Early Cold | Shkan (January 5–19)
Chapter 24: Deep Cold | Daikan (January 20–February 3)

Afterword: Spring Comes Again
Glossary and Seasonal Words
Resources
Acknowledgements
About the Authors