Vol.10-2 — Why Kyoto: On Keeping Time
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On how Kyoto keeps time.
We have lived in Kyoto long enough to stop noticing some things.
The sound of temple bells in the distance. The mountains that sit at the edge of the city. The way people give directions using north, south, east, and west rather than landmarks.
And then there are the things that still catch our attention.
The small rituals. The seasonal habits. The quiet ways this city keeps track of time.
What the Seasons Are Here
In many places, the seasons arrive as weather.
Here, they arrive as rituals.
On the last day of June, people eat minazuki. A simple sweet made of sweet beans and rice flour. It marks the passing of the year's first half and the arrival of summer. Children eat it. Grandparents eat it. Every shop seems to sell it. For a few days, the entire city participates in the same gesture.
On the evening of August 16, fires appear on the mountains surrounding Kyoto. The Gozan Okuribi is held to guide ancestral spirits back to the other world after Obon. Thousands of people stop what they are doing and look toward the mountains. For a brief moment, an entire city shares the same view.
In autumn comes ino-ko mochi. A seasonal sweet connected to hopes for health, prosperity, and a safe winter. Like many traditions in Kyoto, it survives not because it is necessary, but because it continues to hold meaning.
And on December 13 comes kotohajime. The traditional beginning of preparations for the new year. Temples begin their cleaning. Geiko and maiko visit their teachers and patrons. The city quietly starts turning its attention toward the year ahead.
What This Changes
None of these customs are essential.
You can live perfectly well without knowing any of them.
Yet together they give shape to the year. They remind us that time is not only measured by calendars, deadlines, and schedules. It can also be measured by shared habits, seasonal foods, and moments that return every year.
Living in Kyoto has changed the way we notice time. The seasons are not simply something that happens outside the window. They become part of daily life. Something to anticipate. Something to celebrate. Something to be grateful for.
The beauty of Kyoto is not only in what remains unchanged. It is in the way change itself is acknowledged.
The first heat of summer. The first cool evening of autumn. The first truly cold morning of winter.
Each season passes. Each season returns. And that return is its own kind of joy.
SMOKE is located at 5-4 Shimogamo Nishimotomachi, Sakyō-ku, Kyoto. Open Wednesday through Sunday, 13:00–17:30. Ships worldwide from Kyoto, Japan.