"Setsubun", a bean throwing ceremony

On February 3, we cerebrate "setsubun" in Japan. It means the changes of the seasons. Although there are four of them in Japan, the word "setsubun" is especially used for the day before the first day of spring. According to the lunar calendar which was used in Japan until late 19th century, "setsubun" was the last day of a year and a new year started next day.

On the evening of "setsubun", we used to open all doors of our house and scatter parched beans inside and outside of our house, shouting "Oni wa soto, Fuku wa uchi", meaning "Out with the devil! In with the good fortune!" to drive out evil spirits of the old year and welcome good fortune of the new year. We threw parched beans, wishing that the evil spirits would never come back in the new year.

After the ceremony was over we picked up the scattered beans in the rooms. Each of us ate the same number of beans as our age.

To my regret, I heard many families don't hold bean-throwing ceremony nowadays.

But most of the temples and shrines in Japan do it.

On that day I visited three shrines to see the bean-throwing ceremonies in my city, Koto-Ward, Tokyo.

First one is Fukagawa Shinmei-gu Shrine. After the ceremonial ritual, the chief priest threw beans at "Aka Oni", a red ogre and "Ao Oni", a blue ogre, yelling "Fuku wa uchi, Oni wa soto". Then notables of the town, parishioners and politicians went up to a stage and began throwing, not beans, but candies, small bags of candies or mandarin oranges to a crowd of people who were frantically trying to catch them.

Second one is Tomioka Hachiman-gu Shrine which had two long stages. As this is a big shrine, many guests were invited to throw beans from the stages. So guests were divided into 5 groups.

First group was sumo wrestlers from Otake Beya which is located in the neighborhood of the shrine. Audience sent big applause and were excited to get beans thrown by the sumo wrestlers. Then second and third group came onto the stages. One group consisted of about forty guests. When guests began to throw soybeans, they were like hail from the sky. People were more excited than before to get the grains of soybeans. It was hard to get the grains by one's hands, so many people had large paper bags with them and caught the beans with the bag's mouths wide open. After the fourth and fifth group repeated throwing, the ceremony was over.

I was anxious to know what would become of a lot of beans thrown but uncaught and fell on the ground. I saw large vinyl sheets were already spread under our feet. I heard later that the shrine would collect the beans left on the sheets and send them to a farm as feed for livestock.

Third one is Kameido Tenjin Shrine where the bean-throwing ceremony began at 6 PM.

Before bean throwing began, "Aka Oni" and "Ao Oni" entered from the darkness, and acted as if "causing harm" to the audience. Both "Oni"s shout something at the chief priest of the shrine, then the priest seemed to preach "Oni"s to repent their wrongdoings. They gave in and exited.

Bean throwing began as usual. At this shrine the soybeans were thrown in a small package. Some people caught the bean package direct from the thrower. Unfortunately I could catch none of them.

After "setsubun" it will get warmer day by day and "ume", a Japanese apricot, will bloom. And long-waited cherry blossom season will come. I can hardly wait for the beautiful spring!

by Hiroshi

The bean throwing ceremony of "setsubun" is one of the most amusing and interesting ritual events in Japan. Next year, if you want to see these event, please contact KEV! We will happily guide you.

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