Ritto立冬 · “winter begins”

In Japan, no.
It seems there is nothing just for Ritto, like the kabocha squash and the yuzu bath of the winter solstice.^※10

Instead, it is the season for breaking the seal on the tea, and in Korea, for starting kimchi.
Not a day for eating, but a day for beginning.

Making the whole winter’s kimchi at once.
It is called kimjang (김장). Often the whole family takes part.

A Korean encyclopedia puts it this way:
“Kimjang is done with Ritto as the standard. Only when it is made just before Ritto, or just after, does it have its true taste.”^※11

Why that day?
As the days go by after Ritto, things freeze. Fresh ingredients run out. Hands get harder to move.^※11
In Korea, where the cold is harsher than in Japan, Ritto was also a kind of deadline for the kitchen.

In the markets, daikon radishes and napa cabbages were piled up like mountains.
Long ago, the sight of women washing them by the river was something people came to watch.^※11

Kimjang does not end in one day in November.
According to UNESCO’s description for its Intangible Cultural Heritage list (2013), the preparation takes a whole year.^※12

• Spring ── shrimp, anchovies and other fish are bought, salted, and left to rest
• Summer ── sea salt is bought for the brine
• Late summer ── red chili peppers are dried and ground into powder
• Late fall ── a large amount is made together in the neighborhood and shared between households
  

For the cabbage pickled in November, the preparation has been going on since spring.
These days the custom is fading, and in Korea, too, many people buy kimchi from the store. The way to make it was mostly handed down from mother-in-law to the woman who married into the family.^{※12
And still, here is kimchi, handed down like this as Korea’s signature food.}

^{I hope the taste of each family and each region keeps being handed down.}

HISTORYA Korean encyclopedia, and the UNESCO record.

The size of the storage space decides how much is made at one time.
The same story as the “cool, dark place” on the Soko page. → Where is a cool, dark place?

A way handed down from mother-in-law to daughter-in-law, and a way put together by my own sense of taste.
Both are on the road from hand to hand.

A recipe page is being prepared.
About koji and miso → Food & fermentation　A list of things you can make → Things to make
Stores where napa cabbage, chili powder and jeotgal (salted seafood) can be bought → Stores where Japanese and Korean goods are easy to find

Sendai napa cabbage, from Miyagi.
“The napa cabbage comes into season in mid-November, when frost falls. After the harvest it is left for a while to go soft, then salted and pickled.”^※13

For takuan from Yamagata, daikon radish is dried for 2 weeks to 20 days, until it bends without breaking, and then pickled with rice bran and salt. It is a great help as a food that keeps, too.
It is left to pickle for 6 to 12 months.^※14

The story of drying daikon is on the Soko page. → Will the daikon be dried after this, too?

HISTORYRecords of local dishes, collected by Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

Around Ritto is the harvest time for new soybeans.
In Aomori from mid-October; in Fukuoka from late October to mid-November.^※37※38

Miso is started after that.
A koji shop writes, “It has long been said that homemade miso should be started in kan (寒, the coldest season).”
It also says the custom was to start it from late November to February, let it sleep through the winter, and let it ferment slowly from spring.^※39
In the cold season there are fewer stray microbes in the air, so it suits starting miso, it has long been said.^※40

On Amami long ago, from fall into early winter, when the new cycad nuts were gathered, everyone made a year’s worth of miso together.^※41 The ingredient was not soybeans but cycad nuts. When it is harvested, it is started. The order is the same.

Long ago, each home made its own miso.
So each home’s taste was different, and it was easy to think your own home’s miso was the best. “Temae-miso” (手前味噌, “my own miso,” meaning praising what is your own) comes from this.^※42

Ritto is the doorway to the season of starting things.
What happens inside the jar, and about color and time → the reading “Miso starts to look different”
TANE’s workshops have made miso, too → Workshops

HISTORYThe harvest is from prefectural documents, “temae-miso” from a dictionary, Amami from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. “Start it in kan” is how makers put it.

• Persimmons (Fuyu, Hachiya) ── only from September to December^※15
• Pomegranates ── September to January^※15
• Satsuma mandarins ── the early ones (Dobashi Beni, Okitsu Wase) ripen at the end of October. Owari about a month after that^※16

Dobashi Beni, Okitsu Wase and Owari all grow well in the cool areas of Southern California, says a university guide.^※16

Farmers’ markets nearby → Farmers’ markets in California
About persimmons → About persimmons

Omotesenke, a school of the tea ceremony, writes:
“In the world of chanoyu (the way of tea), early November, Ritto in today’s calendar, is the start of a new year.”^※17

The new tea picked in spring is kept, still as whole leaves, in a tea jar.
Around Ritto, the seal on the jar is broken, and the tea starts to be used.
This is called “kuchikiri” (opening the jar).
This time, when the new tea is first used, is called “the New Year of tea”.^※17※18

The leaves from the opened jar are ground in a stone tea mill, and their use begins.^※18
The new tea is not drunk right after picking, but rested, and opened in winter. The way of tea has that way of drinking.

There are written guides for when to open the hearth, too.
Rikyu said, “when the yuzu turns color.” Sotan, the third head of the family, said, “once your breath looks white.”^※19
Not by the date, but by the color of the yuzu, and their own breath.

In California, too, I felt winter when my breath turned white. (Above: “And in California?”)

A tea farm on Yakushima grows its own tea and sells it itself. As whole leaves.
→ What we choose: naturally grown sencha from Yakushima
The rules we choose by → Our rules for choosing

How resting changes color and taste → the reading “Miso starts to look different”

HISTORYWhat the head family of a tea school writes.

Ritto is a day for beginning.
From Kanro to Soko, and then Ritto. All through the fall, there have been things to start in the kitchen, one after another.

Pages on how to make them → The recipe shelf
About koji and miso → Food & fermentation　A list of things you can make → Things to make

For anyone who would like to look together at why we do it this way, while moving their own hands.
→ Workshops　On-demand courses (when they are ready, you will hear first)

An old Chinese book, the Liji (礼記, the Book of Rites), writes about the first month of winter.
“In this month, the Son of Heaven puts on furs for the first time.”^※20

Around Soko, people in Edo “added” cotton padding to their kimono.
At Ritto, one more layer goes on top. Well, of course ── it’s cold...

→ When did people long ago change to winter clothes? (Soko)
→ What to air, and how?　Can shrunken wool be brought back? (Kanro)

On the day of the boar (亥, i) in the 10th month of the old calendar. It is called “Inoko” (亥の子).
A dictionary says, “In early modern times there was a custom of opening the hearth and the kotatsu (a low table with a heat source and a quilt), and bringing out the hibachi (a charcoal brazier), from this day.”^※21
The 1720 play Shinjū Ten no Amijima (The Love Suicides at Amijima) even has a line celebrating opening the kotatsu on Inoko.^{※21
I love that bringing out the kotatsu was one of the celebrations.}

Why the day of the boar?
In yin-yang and the five phases, the boar (亥) is “water.”
So it has long been said that a fire lit on this day will not turn into a house fire.
At the imperial court, the day of the boar in the month of the boar was taken as “the start of the water season,” and from that day a fire was lit in the hearth, Omotesenke explains.^{※22
Here, too, yin-yang and the calendar are used so that there will be no fire. To me, it looks like more than prayer or wishing for luck: a history of living together with the flow of nature, respecting it, and letting daily life follow it.}

Inoko was also, at first, a day to celebrate the harvest and send off the god of the rice fields.
Tōkanya (十日夜) in the Kantō region is the same kind of day.^※21

In early modern times, people set the day to bring out the heating by the calendar.
They did not wait for the cold. They lined it up with a date.

HISTORYDictionary records. “No house fire” is something that has long been said.

When the heating is on, the air in the room gets dry.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) writes that humidity inside a home should be below 60%, and ideally 30–50%.^※23

Even when using a humidifier, not above 50%. If water forms on windows or walls, humidify less.^※24

Not too dry, and not too damp.
The water on the windows we looked at for Soko is a sign of “too damp.” → Why are the windows wet in the morning?

Before turning on the heat, try tending to just one spot.
Dust on things that have been sitting out, a futon that was put away. Anywhere is a fine place to start.

About skin in the season when the air gets dry, see the Soko page → When the air gets dry, what about skin?

SCIENCEGuidelines from the U.S. EPA.

Kenrokuen, a garden in Kanazawa, begins “yukizuri” (雪吊り, snow hanging) on November 1.
The branches are held up with ropes, so they do not break under the weight of the snow.
The largest pine has its branches held by about 800 ropes from 5 poles (the 2024 example).^※25

In Sapporo, before the snow falls, low street trees are wrapped in bamboo and rope. When the snow melts in spring, it comes off.^※26

HISTORYRecords put out by the prefecture and the city.

A Chinese book called the Huangdi Neijing (黄帝内経, the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic).
Over 2,000 years ago, the ideas not of one person but of many people were gathered into it, over a long time.
It is said to be the oldest medical book in China.^※27

In a part of it called the Suwen (素問, “Basic Questions”), winter is described like this.^※28

• The three months of winter are “heizō” (閉蔵). The season of closing up and storing away.
• Water freezes, and the ground cracks.
• Go to bed early, get up late. Wait until the sun is up.
• Keep the things you want to do quietly inside your chest. Stay calm, as if you already had something precious.
• Keep away from the cold, and stay where it is warm. Do not sweat and let too much of what is inside the body out.
• This is the winter way of living: “storing away.” Doing the opposite harms the “jin” (腎), and in spring it becomes hard to feel lively.

TRADITIONWhat has been written in an old book. Not something checked by today’s science.

“Hei” (閉) means to close.
“Zō” (蔵) means to store away, to hide, and a storehouse.^※29

Why close up and store away?
A scholar of the Tang dynasty added this note to the book:
“Grasses and trees wither, and insects go into the soil. The doors of the earth close.”^※30
Because nature is closing up, people close up too. That is how they thought.

Rice harvested in fall is kept in the storehouse through the winter.
Because it was stored away, there are seeds to sow in spring.

The last line of the passage says, “there will be less to offer to the ‘life’ of spring.”
It is written this way: if you do not store away in winter, there is nothing to bring out in spring.

People in old China sorted the many things of the world into 5 groups.
Wood, fire, earth, metal, water. This is called “gogyō” (五行, the five phases).^※31

The row after “fall = metal = lungs,” which we looked at for Kanro. → What is “gather in in fall, store away in winter”?
Winter belongs to the “water” group.

The Suwen lists the members of the water group like this.^※28

Cold comes from the north, water is born from cold, the salty taste is born from water, and it nourishes the jin ──
they read these linked together, like a word-chain game.^※28

INTERPRETATIONOne way of reading the world.

It is thought not to be the same.
In the old books, “jin” (腎) was less the name of one organ in the body, and more a name for the work of “storing,” “growing,” and “moving water around.”^※32

The Suwen calls the jin this:
“Like an insect sleeping through the winter, it keeps what is precious stored away ── the root of storing.” And it “is linked with winter.”^※28

The interesting part is the character.
In this book, the “organ” (臓) of the body and the “storehouse” (蔵) for keeping things are written with the same character (藏).^※28

Let’s try sorting what is written by its kind.

It is not just two choices, “it means something” or “it means nothing.”
If you keep what is about nature and what is handed-down lore apart, you can choose for yourself.

Even if it has not been checked, it shows how people over 2,000 years ago tried to spend the winter.
That in itself is worth knowing.

Let’s try setting the book’s words into today’s life.
Not rules. Just one thing to try.

Tea was picked in spring and opened in winter.
The salted seafood for kimchi was salted in spring and used in winter.

And you?

• Over the winter, what would you like to store away?
• When spring comes, what would you like to open?

How people have said fall should be spent is on the Kanro page → Six questions to turn toward yourself

Think of the sun’s path as a ring of 360 degrees.
The day the sun reaches 225 degrees is Ritto.^※1
Exactly halfway between the fall equinox (180 degrees) and the winter solstice (270 degrees).

The “fall doyo,” which began before Soko, ends on the day before Ritto.^※1
→ Soko, and the fall doyo

SCIENCEAstronomy: it is set by where the sun is.

Of the three, only the middle one is the same in Japan and China.^※33

In the first one, “山茶” is read “tsubaki” (camellia), but in Japan’s seventy-two kō (七十二候, the 72 short seasons) it means sasanqua. In China, “山茶花” means camellia.^※34

For the last one, “金盞” (kinsen), one view is that it is narcissus; another view is that it is calendula (kinsenka).^※35

HISTORYRecords of the calendar. Views differ on “金盞.”

In Western astrology, the sun’s path is divided into 12 parts called “signs.” Scorpio is one of them.
On the day of Ritto, the sun is right in the middle of Scorpio.^※43
→ When does Scorpio begin? (Soko)

A water sign. A “fixed” sign, one that does not move. Its meaning is “passion.”
Its ruling planets are Mars and Pluto. That is how it has been read.
There are 4 signs called “fixed”: Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius.^※43
→ Mars since long ago, Pluto since 1930 (Soko)

Counted by angle, the four “starts” ── of spring, summer, fall and winter (Risshun, Rikka, Risshu, Ritto) ── each come in the middle of one of these 4 signs.

It is written that a sign’s kind is set by its place within the season.^※44
If we count it against astronomical fall (from the fall equinox to the winter solstice^※3), Scorpio is the second month of fall. TANE joined the 2 sources and counted.
At the same place, the East Asian calendar reads “winter begins.”
→ The Celts, too, made this the start of winter (and in America?)

TANE also refers to this view, as knowledge that people before us grew.
But here, we are setting side by side how people have read the same sky.

SCIENCEThat Ritto is in the middle of Scorpio, and that the four “starts” come in the middle of the 4 signs, are calculations of angle.

INTERPRETATIONThe qualities of the signs and the “fixed” grouping are a record of how Western astrology has read them.

Astrologers today read Scorpio season like this.^※45

Deep and real.
Surface-level friendships stop feeling like enough. A season when honest feelings and sincerity matter.

Letting go.
A season to let built-up feelings all the way out, to give in to the flow, and to let go. They also write that “it isn’t easy.”

Looking inward.
Where have you been using your own power until now? A season for looking back.

The article also asks a question like this:
“Who, and what, do you want to spend your most precious time on?”

Here’s something interesting. A Chinese book from over 2,000 years ago wrote of winter as the season to “close up and store away.”
Astrologers today read Scorpio season as a season to “look inward.”
The ways of reading are different, yet they point in a similar direction.
→ What does “heizō” mean?

TANE’s idea: one page in a notebook on the night of Ritto.
Try writing one of each: “what I will store away this winter” and “what I will let go.”
→ Over the winter, what will you store away?

INTERPRETATIONHow astrologers today read it. Not something checked for whether it comes true.

On Jeju Island, people say that if the day of Ritto is not warm, the wind will be harsh that year.
In the southern regions, people say that if the day of Ritto is cold, that winter will be very cold.^※11

No one has checked whether these come true. They are probably words born from long years of experience.
But every year, on the same day, people looked at the sky, compared it with the year before, and tried to read the winter.
Reading ahead from the experience of daily life. That has stayed with us in the form of folk forecasting.

Around this time, people make steamed rice cakes with the newly harvested rice, offer them to the storehouse and the seed rice, and then eat them.
They share some with the ox that worked all year, too, and with the neighbors.^※11

TRADITIONFolk sayings. Whether they come true has not been checked.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) explains it like this:
astronomical winter begins at the winter solstice (around December 22). Winter by weather statistics begins on December 1.^※3

Around Ritto, it is still “fall.”
Instead, on the first Sunday of November the clocks go back one hour, and the time it gets dark turns to winter first.^※9

Still, there were people in the West, too, who put a mark at the doorway of winter.
One view is that Halloween, on October 31, comes from an old Irish festival for the start of winter.
An astronomy explainer writes that the day exactly halfway between the fall equinox and the winter solstice is “around November 7,” and that for the ancient Celts it was not the middle of the season, but its start.^※36
On the calendar, it is the same place as Ritto.

→ About Halloween　The Soko page

The Liji says that on the day of Ritto, the king took his officials to the northern edge of the capital and welcomed winter.^※20

Korea pickled and read the sky, America turns back the clocks, and China welcomed winter in the north.
At the doorway of winter, every land had something it “lined up” to do.