🌺 NATURE · Japan explained · 2026-09-03

Higanbana: the red spider lily that blooms for one week at the autumn equinox in Japan

Q: When do red spider lilies (higanbana) bloom in Japan?

Around the autumn equinox, in the second half of September. The flowers open all at once and last only about a week, which is why they are seen as a sign that autumn has arrived.

秋分の日に開くひがんばな

Same news, rewritten for 6 Japanese school grades — pick your level below. Furigana + translation included.

169 chars · ~3 min · 27 kanji

🌺 NATURE 秋分しゅうぶん

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秋分しゅうぶんの日ひの前後ぜんご、田たの岸きしや川かわぞいに赤あかい花はなが一度いちどに開ひらきます。

名前なまえはひがんばな。おひがんにさくからです。

花はなの時とき、葉ははありません。

花はなが終おわった後あとに葉はが出でて、春はるに消きえます。

根ねにはどくがあり、昔むかしの人ひとはねずみから田たを守まもるために植うえました。

花はなは一週間いっしゅうかんほどでしおれますが、毎年まいとし同おなじ場所ばしょにもどります。

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Translation

Around the autumn equinox, red flowers open all at once on the edges of rice fields and along rivers.

The flower is called higanbana because it blooms right in the Higan period.

When the flowers are out, there are no leaves.

After the flowers finish, the leaves come out and then vanish in spring.

The bulbs are poisonous, so people long ago planted them to protect rice fields from mice.

The flowers wilt after about a week, but they return to the very same spot every year.

When do red spider lilies (higanbana) bloom in Japan?

Higanbana (彼岸花), the red spider lily, is the flower that tells Japan autumn has arrived. For roughly one week around the autumn equinox — the Buddhist "Higan" period that gives the flower its name — bright red blooms open all at once along rice-field edges and riversides, then wilt again just as quickly.

The plant does things backwards. When it flowers there is not a single leaf on the bare stalk. Only after the flowers fade do the leaves appear; they photosynthesise and store nutrients through the winter, then wither in spring. Japanese calls this habit "hamizu hanamizu": the leaves never see the flowers, and the flowers never see the leaves.

Its bulbs contain a poison called lycorine, and that is exactly why farmers long ago planted it on purpose around paddies and graveyards — to keep mice and moles away. In times of famine, people washed the bulbs many times in water to remove the poison and ate them as emergency food.

Higanbana has more than a thousand regional names, including manjushage, a name that comes from Buddhism. The most famous place to see it is Kinchakuda in Hidaka City, Saitama Prefecture, where about five million plants bloom together and draw hundreds of thousands of visitors each September.

This article comes in six versions, one for each elementary-school kanji grade, with furigana and full Vietnamese and English translations, so you can read real Japanese at exactly your level.

Why are higanbana planted around rice fields and graves?

Their bulbs contain the poison lycorine, so farmers long ago planted them on purpose along paddy edges and graveyards to keep mice and moles away. In famines the bulbs were washed repeatedly to remove the poison and eaten.

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