"Demons Out! Luck in!"
If you come to visit Japan in January and early February, you would probably find the masks of demons in the supermarkets and the convenience stores and also flyers about sushi rolls. They are for the “Setsubun” ceremony.
February 3rd is “Setsubun” in Japan. It literally means the division of the season but in Japan it always refers to the spring Setsubun. The traditional “Mamemaki” (bean throwing ceremony) is carried out to purify the home from evil. People shout “Oni wa soto!” (Demons out!) “Fuku wa uchi!” (Luck in!) and throw soy beans. Sometimes some members of the family play the demon’s roles wearing the demon’s masks and other people actually throw beans at them. After the ceremony, people pick up the beans and they are supposed to eat as many beans as their age. This ceremony is carried out also at schools, kindergartens, temples and shrines.
This year we went to Kanshin-ji temple to take photos of Setsubun. Every year beans and rice cakes are thrown at the ceremony but it was snowy on the 3rd this year so they decided to hand them out.
Mainly in Kansai area in Japan, another Setsubun practice has become popular in 1970’s. It’s “Eho-maki eating”. “Eho” means “good luck direction” and “maki” suggests “makizushi” (sushi roll). On February 3rd people eat uncut sushi rolls facing the yearly lucky compass direction determined by the zodiac symbol of the year. Luck is thought be rolled in Eho-maki and people eat it wishing good luck. They are supposed to eat without saying anything to prevent the good luck to slip away from the mouth. The traditional Osaka merchants seemed to have practiced this custom in 1920’s. And it was brought into the daylight again by the people in “nori” (seaweed paper) business to promote more consumption of nori at the “Nori Festival” in 1977, which included a fast Maki-zushi eating contest and TV broadcast it. This is thought be the start of this custom. In 1989 Seven-Eleven in Hiroshima started selling “Eho-maki” and in 2005 three major convenience stores in Japan, Seven-Elevens, Family Marts and Lawsons, have sold more than 6 million of them. Now Eho-maki for Setsubun is a big business like chocolate for St. Valentine’s Day.
The Gate of
Kanshinji temple
Kanshinji temple in the snow
Handing out beans & rice cakes
Setsubun dinner
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