Micro-season 29 of 72 · May 26 – May 30

Safflowers bloom.

Benibana sakau

Safflowers unfurl their thistle-like blooms in brilliant orange and yellow, signaling the deepening of early summer warmth.

The fields of Yamagata flush with color as safflower heads open under a sun that now climbs high and lingers long. The air carries a green sweetness — rice paddies filled, barley ripening, the earth drinking deeply. Mornings arrive with birdsong layered thick, and by afternoon, the light has a golden weight that presses gently on the skin.

Nature notes

Safflowers reach their peak bloom, their tubular florets shifting from yellow to deep vermillion as they mature. Swallows are now feeding second broods, their darting silhouettes constant against pale evening skies. In the paddies, young rice plants have taken firm root, their green intensifying daily as frogs chorus through the humid nights.

In season

Fruits

Vegetables

Fish

At the table

01

Crisp pickled Japanese scallions, their sharp sweetness a bright counterpoint to rich summer meals.

02

Paper-thin slices of sea bass served chilled, showcasing the fish's clean, delicate flavor at its seasonal peak.

03

Salt-grilled sweetfish, skewered whole, embodying the clear mountain rivers where they now run.

04

Chilled tofu crowned with fragrant perilla and ginger buds, a dish that cools the body as humidity rises.

Cultural note

Safflower cultivation reaches back over a thousand years in Yamagata Prefecture, where the blooms were harvested to make beni — the precious red pigment for dyeing silk and tinting lips. Picking begins at dawn when dew softens the thorny bracts, and the harvested petals are fermented, pounded, and dried into cakes. This tradition of beni-making is now rare, kept alive by a handful of artisans who still produce the only organic red colorant permitted in traditional cosmetics.

紅花や朝露重き摘み手かな

benibana ya / asatsuyu omoki / tsumite kana

safflowers — / the picker's hands heavy / with morning dew

In the warm stillness of late May, the safflower's crimson deepens like a slow blush, holding summer's first true heat in its petals.