Tōji (Winter Solstice)

What Is Tōji, the Winter Solstice?

Around December 22nd comes "Tōji," the winter solstice. It is one of the 24 traditional solar terms, marking the day that contains the moment the sun reaches a celestial longitude of 270 degrees. In the Northern Hemisphere the sun sits at its lowest point at noon, daylight is at its shortest, and the night at its longest. According to the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, the 2026 solstice falls on December 22nd at 5:50 a.m.

Nearly Five Hours Shorter Than the Summer Solstice

In Tokyo on December 22, 2026, the sun rises at 6:47 a.m. and sets at 4:32 p.m., giving about 9 hours 45 minutes of daylight. At that year's summer solstice on June 21, sunrise is 4:25 a.m. and sunset 7:00 p.m., or roughly 14 hours 35 minutes -- a difference of about 4 hours 50 minutes. Because the days begin lengthening again from here, Tōji is also called "ichiyō-raifuku": yin reaches its limit and turns toward yang, and fortunes are said to start recovering.

"Unmori": Stacking Up Luck with the Sound "N"

There is a custom of eating foods whose names contain the syllable "n" on the solstice, a practice called unmori, or "heaping up luck." Seven foods containing two "n" sounds are known as the tōji no nanakusa, the solstice seven.

• Nankin (kabocha pumpkin): the classic solstice food; tradition holds that eating it on Tōji keeps colds away
• Renkon (lotus root) and ninjin (carrot): lotus root's holes let you "see the way ahead"; carrots are a winter staple
• Ginnan (ginkgo nuts) and kinkan (kumquats): small autumn-to-winter fruits and nuts
• Kanten (agar) and undon (udon): "undon" is an older reading of udon

Why Kabocha in Particular?

Kabocha is really a summer-to-early-autumn crop. It became the solstice food because it keeps: stored somewhere well ventilated, it lasts into winter. In a season with few vegetables, it was one of the only richly colored ones still available -- and its alternative name, nankin, conveniently carries two "n" sounds. Some regions instead cook it with adzuki beans as itoko-ni, or eat tōji-gayu, a rice porridge with adzuki, whose red color was long believed to drive off misfortune.

The Yuzu Bath Came Out of Edo's Public Baths

Bathing with whole yuzu citrus on the solstice is thought to have spread from the public bathhouses of Edo. Tōto Saijiki, a guide to the annual observances of Edo published in 1838, records: "Tōji -- today the bathhouses heat a yuzu bath." The custom rests on wordplay -- tōji also means a therapeutic hot-spring stay, and yuzu echoes yūzū, meaning things going smoothly -- combined with the older belief that the fruit's fragrance drives off misfortune. That yuzu is harvested at exactly this time of year surely helped the custom stick.

Tips for Marking This Day

• Warm up with simmered kabocha or kabocha miso soup
• Float whole yuzu in the bath and take your time
• Look up sunrise and sunset times and pay attention to the short daylight
• In the spirit of ichiyō-raifuku, write down one thing you want to do next year

A Turning Point, Not the Bottom

Tōji is not the coldest point of winter -- that comes later -- but it is the turning point for light. Once the longest night is behind you, the bright hours only increase. In the rush of late December, it is worth pausing on that.