rainbows begin to be seen…

One day, Kiku the little fox and his best friend Miko the shrine maiden doll were taking a stroll in Tokyo with Boss Panda, when they saw a rainbow painted onto a wall.

“Look!” said Miko, “Doesn’t your seasonal almanac say something about rainbows appearing this week?” Kiku stopped to look at the colourful graffiti.

Boss Panda laughed. “I don’t think that this is exactly what it means! More that the weather is beginning to include more sunshine and showers, so that rainbows begin to be seen in the sky…”

Miko-chan thought that even so, the graffiti had appeared at just the right time….

Later that same day, Kiku and Miko stopped to watch the sun go down over Tokyo Tower, just after a light rain shower. The pair were thrilled when a rainbow appeared in the sky, just for them…

Further information

*Sekkis, Kos and The Fox Alamanac

Kiku has been working on translating an old Japanese seasonal almanac given to him by Boss Panda. Originally from China, the recordings within it were changed long ago to more accurately reflect the seasonal transitions in central Honshu, the main island of Japan, where Tokyo is located. Closely linked to agriculture, the system divides the solar year into 24 segments called ‘sekki’ and each of these has a concise title that gives a general indication of the season. Each sekki is divided further into three five-day segments called ‘ko’ (climates). Each ko has an observation noted for the five days – a change in insect or plant behaviour for example, and Kiku is working his way through them, hoping that by following the little seasonal changes as remarked on in the almanac, he will come to have a better understanding of Japan, a country where seasonal foods and customs are still very familiar to many. He calls his own version the ‘fox almanac’ or in Japanese the ‘Kitsune no shichijuniko’ (Fox’s 72 climates).