Spring Begins Before Cherry Blossoms

Kyoto’s Plum Season at Kitano Tenmangu

Kyoto in February is still winter.The air is cold, the shadows are long, and mornings carry an almost startling quiet.At this time of year, the city feels less like a destination and more like a place where winter has been left intact.

And yet, Kyoto offers a sign that appears only in this season—a quiet beginning that arrives long before the famous cherry blossoms.

It is the plum blossom.

Plum Blossoms Do Not Rush the Arrival of Spring

If cherry blossoms are the symbol of spring,plum blossoms are its first indication.

They do not compete for attention.They do not transform the city all at once.And still, they bloom—unmistakably.

The simple fact of their flowering suggests that something has already begun to shift.

In Kyoto, spring does not always arrive as a celebration.It often begins as something that only those paying attention receive first.

The Presence of Kitano Tenmangu

In Kyoto, the most iconic place to encounter plum blossoms is Kitano Tenmangu.The shrine enshrines Sugawara no Michizane, long revered as the deity of learning.Plum blossoms are also deeply associated with him, and the grounds are planted with an abundance of them.

When the season comes, the atmosphere here changes—subtly, but distinctly.

What feels most striking is that the beauty of the blossoms is not a matter of spectacle.It is inseparable from the stillness of the space itself.

Rather than standing alone, the plum blossoms rise as a presence—together with stone paths, winter light, and the shadows of trees.

Risshun: Welcoming a Spring That Has Not Yet Arrived

Around this time, Japan’s traditional calendar marks Risshun—the beginning of spring.

Risshun does not mean that winter has ended.It is, rather, the moment when the calendar quietly declares:Spring has begun, even though the cold remains.

Plum season aligns perfectly with this sensibility.

While the world still wears the expression of winter,people begin to accept the next season internally—before it becomes visible.

Kyoto’s plum blossoms do not explain this idea.They simply embody it, without excess.

If You Go, Choose the Time

Kitano Tenmangu’s plum blossoms are worth visiting.But in the spirit of RYOGA, it is less about “going to see the blossoms”and more about receiving the time in which they exist.

There are only two moments we recommend.

• A weekday morning

• Late afternoon, as the light begins to fade

In these hours, voices are fewer.The density of the air changes.And the fragrance of the blossoms rises in the most natural way.

It is also when photographs begin to feel truthful.

Kyoto Knows Spring Before It Arrives

As the cherry blossom season approaches, Kyoto becomes visibly radiant.But the city’s spring begins earlier—and more quietly.

There is a kind of beauty in February that does not insist on being noticed.A beauty that does not announce itself.

Even in winter air, something has already started to change.

To recognize that shift without rushing it—this may be Kyoto’s way of sensing the seasons,and one of the deeper forms of wisdom held within Japan’s calendar.

Coming Next

Next, we will write about another face of Kyoto in winter:the early morning temples where sound seems to disappear.

Not the Kyoto of sightseeing—but the Kyoto where time remains.