The natural world has always been a key subject of Japanese verse, and there’s even an established body of words — kigo — that categorize various phenomena by season and thereby evoke particular emotions. For instance, referring to a typhoon in a poem is supposed to anchor it in the autumn. But Japan, like many other places, is now experiencing “season creep”: the cherry blossoms in Kyoto this year peaked earlier than ever in well over a millennium of recordkeeping, and typhoons may now hit anytime from May to December. Increasingly, the kigo system no longer makes sense. – The Economist
