Ohigan: A Japanese Tradition of Autumn & Red Spider Lilies
About the author: Mio is a Japanese high school student interested in international exchange and learning about different cultures. Through the HGS Community Clubs, she hopes to introduce Japanese traditions, seasonal events, and food culture to students around the world.
When you think of autumn in Japan, you may imagine colorful maple leaves. However, for me, another flower also signals the beginning of autumn: the bright red higanbana, or red spider lily.
Higanbana are closely connected with a Japanese tradition called Ohigan. Ohigan takes place twice a year, around the spring and autumn equinoxes. Each Ohigan period lasts for seven days, with the equinox in the middle. During this time, many Japanese families visit the graves of their ancestors, clean the graves, offer flowers, and spend time remembering family members who have passed away.
The autumn Ohigan is usually in September.
This is also the time when higanbana suddenly begin blooming across Japan. Higanbana have a very unusual appearance. Their thin, curling petals and long stamens spread outward like the legs of a spider. Their bright red color is beautiful, but they can also look mysterious. In English, they are called “red spider lilies.” They also have another beautiful Japanese name, manjushage.
Around September, higanbana can often be seen beside rice fields, rivers, country roads, and grassy slopes. Their red flowers are especially striking when the rice fields are beginning to turn golden. This is one reason why I strongly connect them with autumn in Japan.
The flower also has an interesting relationship with graves.
Higanbana bulbs are poisonous. In the past, people are said to have planted them near rice fields to discourage animals such as moles and rats. They were also planted near graves when burial in the ground was more common in Japan, because their poisonous bulbs may have helped keep small animals away.
Because higanbana were often seen near graves and were poisonous, some people began to connect them with death, separation, or bad luck. In some families, people did not want them to be brought inside the house.
There is a story in my own family that shows this old belief.
When my father was a little boy, he found a beautiful higanbana growing by the roadside. He liked it so much that he picked one and brought it home. However, when his grandmother, my great-grandmother, saw the flower, she became very upset.
My father did not understand why. To him, it was simply a beautiful red flower. But to my great-grandmother’s generation, higanbana may have had a completely different meaning. It may have been considered a flower that should never be brought into the house.
I find this story interesting because it shows how the same flower can be seen very differently by different generations.
If you watch Japanese anime or read manga, you may have seen flowers that look like higanbana. They sometimes appear in sad, mysterious, or supernatural scenes. Because of this, some people outside Japan may know the flower from anime before seeing a real one. However, real higanbana do not always feel frightening.
For this project, I photographed and filmed them myself. When I placed one in front of a traditional shoji screen in a dark room, it looked mysterious, almost like a flower from a story. Outside, however, it looked completely different. Beside the rice fields, surrounded by green grass and ripening rice, the bright red flowers seemed like a natural part of the Japanese countryside.
For me, Ohigan is not only a time connected with graves and ancestors. It is also a time when I notice the changing season, think about my family, and see the red higanbana blooming in familiar places.
When I see these flowers in September, I feel that autumn in Japan has truly begun.