Setsubun

Yesterday in Japan it was せつぶん! It is held on the 3rd or 4th of Feb to signify the end of winter and the beginning of spring.

There are several parts of Sestubun. Usually in a household, the male head of the household will wear an Oni mask, and the rest of the family members will throw roasted soy beans at him, yelling ‘おにはそと！ふきはうち！’ Which means “Demons Out! Good Luck In!” It is meant to purify the home for the following year, and drive out spirits that bring bad luck.

Oni mask display at the local supermarket. Most supermarkets had oni masks and roasted soy beans for sale for the occasion.

As well as celebrating Setsubun at home and at school, many people go to local shrines on the day. At the shrines, priests, invited guests who are としおとこ and としおんな (people whose zodiac sign corresponds to the year’s animal, i.e. this year it was people who were born in the year of the horse) and celebrities come and throw small bags of roasted soy beans and lollies to the waiting crowds. People then take them home and eat the same number as their age for good luck.

  

Ikegami Honmonji Temple set up for Setsubun, and the priests leading the procession of people.

 

 Famous Former Sumo Wrestlers

People were very eager to push forward to catch the soy beans! (But I guess if you have to eat the same number as your age, some people had to catch a lot!)

You had to make sure you were watching so you didn’t get hit in the head by them, they were pretty solid! These bags contained roasted soy beans and a caramel lolly.

The final tradition that I took part in was eating えほうまき, which is uncut まきずし. There are 7 ingredients inside them as 7 is a lucky number in Japan. This tradition originated in the Kansai area, but now you can find えほうまき in every department store and supermarket in Tokyo. It is customary to eat the whole えほうまき (which means lucky direction roll) without stopping, in silence while facing the compass direction relating to this year’s zodiac animal. This year we faced East North East to eat them.

We were also very lucky on the day, it has been unusually warm in Tokyo (it was 19 degrees on Setsubun), and some さくら had started blooming! A good sign to welcome in the spring!