"Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons: Nature, Literature, and the Arts" by Haruo Shirane -
"Spring and autumn in Japan are relatively mild, very similar to these seasons in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, but climatically they are sandwiched between two long and severe seasons. Although summer ends around August 6 under the modern calendar, in terms of climatic conditions, summer in Kyoto continues at least until the end of August. When the monsoon and post-monsoon periods are combined with the hot weather of August, summer lasts for roughly one-third of the year. Viewed in this larger perspective, spring and autumn are transitional seasons between the cold continental weather and the hot Pacific Ocean weather.15 These severe climatic conditions contrast starkly with the widely held view of Japan’s climate as mild, elegant, and harmonious. In an inversion of the actual climatic conditions, Nara- and Heian-period aristocratic culture made spring and autumn the supreme seasons, which were c