72 Seasons

The season name says grasshopper, but the one you hear chirping at this time of year is a cricket with a different song to the summer grasshopper. As we move into autumn, it sings with an echoing, bell-like song. In old times, as people worked on mending clothes at this time of year, the cricket was said to sing “kata-sase, suso-sase, tsuzure-sase (sew the shoulder, sew the hem, sew the embroidery)". You can picture them working late into the night to finish winter preparations, as the crickets sang.

©Utsukushii Kurashikata Institute