Spring rain for grains 2018/04/28
It is a fine day. Temperature is just over 20 C and humidity is around 30 %. It is comfortable and refreshing.
Mid and late April is called as “ kokuu” in Japan. “ Kokuu” means spring rain which makes grains sprout. It used to be the season for farmers to plant rice seeds.
Japanese word “ sakura” for cherry blossoms means holly wood which contains sacred sprit of rice.
Cherry blossoms become full bloom in late March or early April in central part of Japan.
And blooming of cherry blossoms used to teach farmers the time when they should start preparation for planting seeds such as selecting rice seeds and put them in water.
Meantime we call rainy season in June as “samidare” which means May rain. Until Meiji restoration, we used lunar-solar calendar and present June falls on May by lunar calendar. And “samidare”, which is rain in June rainy season, teach farmers to plant seedlings, so called “ rice planting”.
To summarize the above,
Together with “sakura” blooming in early April, farmers start preparation for planting rice seeds.
Together with “kokuu”, they start planting seeds in mid and late April.
Together with “samidare”, they start rice planting in June rainy season.
Japan has been the nation of agriculture and rice cultivating, therefore there are so many expressions and sayings related with rice cultivating. 
rice sedlings
