Setsubun (February 3rd) is the day before the first day of spring according to the old Japanese calendar. On the day of Setsubun, the custom is to throw roasted soybeans while chanting “Demons out! Luck in! 鬼は外! 福は内!” This drives demons or ogres, oni in Japanese, from your house, prevents them from entering for the rest of the year, and ensures good fortune will come to your home. On this day, special events are held at shrines all over Japan. According to Japanese tradition, if you eat the same number of beans as your age, you will enjoy a year of good health.
Oni masks for children to wear and piles of roasted soybeans to toss at my local grocery store!
What’s so special about roasted soybeans? Well, there is an old story that goes along with this celebration. In it, a demon disguises itself as a human and goes to a widow’s house. He uses a magic mallet to create a beautiful kimono and the woman decides to try and trick him. She gets him drunk and tries to take both the kimono and the mallet. But the demon sees through this and reveals his true self to her. She is so frightened, she starts throwing soybeans at him and he runs away, taking his mallet and the kimono with him.
Setsubun also means eating ehoumaki. They’re long rolls of uncut sushi that are filled with seven lucky ingredients. This is really a Kanto (southern) Japan tradition, but recent commercialism by grocery stores around the country have spread the practice. There’s a great explanation of proper ehoumaki-eating etiquette at Just Hungry. Maki’s site also has a wonderful collection of Japanese food recipes and a bento site called Just Bento.
Piles of ehoumaki at my local grocery store. Sorry for the bad quality, I had to take pics with my cellphone camera – it’s rather embarrassing to take photos on a busy Sunday afternoon!
Some other related links:
Setsubun from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Setsubun (Bean-Throwing Festival) from the Japan National Tourist Organization
Related MadSilence post: Get ready for it…
~A collaboration by Madsilence the Elder and Younger
5 Comments
February 3, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Great post. Wish I were there this year.
February 4, 2008 at 5:02 am
I dont have any roasted soybeans and between eating my age and the ehoumaki I will be stuffed!!!! in silence huh, thats a tough one for me!!!!
February 4, 2008 at 9:23 am
Pretty cool. Those demons remind me of Halloween. Did you spread roasted soybeans around your apartment for good luck?
February 5, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Monica i’m sure you’d be fine ~_^ though i’d probably have the same prob with staying quiet through a meal, i’m a notorious chatterbox XD
~CAB
February 10, 2008 at 3:49 am
That’s a scary-looking demon mask. With my bad fortunes this year, I have got to get one.