Setsubun 2009
Sumo, J-Pop Cuties, Samurai & Fighting Monks

A Japanese Setsubun Devil Preparing for his Annual Exorcism

Setsubun is one of my favorite Japanese traditions. It’s the day that Japanese seek to drive bad luck or evil out of their homes by throwing beans.The bad luck is personified as devils known as Oni. Oni apparently have an acute allergy to beans which causes them to go blind. People throw beans and eat them to effectively ward off the evil of the dreaded Oni.

Mame-maki – throwing beans and other items at a shrine in Tokyo

At temples and shrines, crowds gather to have beans thrown to them. This is known as mame-maki. Priests and local dignitaries sometimes celebrities will throw beans and other items which people try to catch for good luck.

Prayer Sticks burned at a Tokyo Temple in order to convey their messages Heavenward on Setsubun

I’ve been going to temples and shrines in and around Tokyo for the last four or five years to celebrate Setsubun. I always take the day off if I am scheduled to work that day. I usually try to hit 2-3 places for Setsubun festivities. This year I was able to squeeze in four Setsubun ceremonies though I actually started my Setsubun a little early.

Setsubun Parade in Shimokitazawa

Long Nose Goblin (Tengu) Float

On January 31st, I went to the small neighborhood of Shimokitazawa in western Tokyo. There they have their Setsubun celebration on the weekend before Setsubun (Setsubun is always Feb. 3rd). Leading the procession is long nose goblin known as Tengu. The Tengu is a mythical creature known for being both mischievous and kind. Some of them trained the hero Minamoto-no-Yoshitsune on Mt. Kurama near Kyoto almost a thousand years ago.

Two Tengu side with the humans against Setsubun Devils

Tengu and Company

The Tengu is the guardian spirit for the local temple in Shimokitazawa. With him is a Karasu Tengu or Crow Tengu. This Tengu has the face of a crow and follows the long nose Tengu. Now at first glance, one might think these two were part of the hoary hordes of devils to be chased away but perhaps the Tengu seeing which way the wind was blowing decided to align themselves with the humans on Setsubun.

A Long Nose Tengu

Karasu (Crow) Tengu

L’il Tengu

On the day of Setsubun itself, I started the day early around 9 am heading an hour east of Tokyo to the city of Narita. Narita has one of the largest Setsubun celebrations in Japan. It certainly was the most crowded Setsubun event I had ever attended. A large number of police were there to guide the crowd. Due to the press of people, the police issued a warning to people not to reach for beans that fell to the ground for fear injuries would result.

Naritasan Shinshoji Temple

One of the main reasons that Narita draws such a large crowd is their celebrity power. Narita brings out the Yokozuna – sumo champion – and some of the big name celebrities at the height of their popularity. This year, several of the actors of this year’s samurai drama were in attendance throwing beans. One of them was former Prime Minister Koizumi’s son.

Yokozuna (sumo champion) Asashoryu and Hakuho

Yokozuna Asashoryu preparing to throw some beans

I was too far in the back of the crowd to be in any danger of being hit in the face by a strong-armed sumo wrestler (like I was last year) or get crushed by bean-catching crowds. Once the madness had passed, I left Narita and headed back into Tokyo; this time to Kanda Myojin Shrine. I went there last year during a sudden snow storm which I assumed was the work of Setsubun devils since they also represent Winter. This year, it was unseasonably warm – perhaps the devils have switched their tactics and are now promoting Global Warming.

Mame-maki Maid – Akihabara is close by the shrine

Ancient Imperial Guards

At Myojin Shrine there were also some celebrities such as Dengeki Network and AKB48. Dengeki Network known in English as Tokyo Shock Boys is a comedy stunt troupe known for their extreme and crude acts like lighting fire-crackers in their posterior. AKB48 is a dance idol group based in Tokyo’s electronic and anime mecca, Akihabara. They’re popular with Akihabara types.

Dengeki Station – Tokyo Shock Boys

AKB48 – Akihabara’s Jailbait Dance Troupe

Although I got hit in the head with an orange, I still managed to catch a few chocolates at this mame-maki. Afterwards, I headed west towards Nakano in Western Tokyo. Here at a small temple called Hosen-ji I saw once again the small parade of warrior monks which I had first seen several years ago.

Warrior Monks – Sohei – armed with Naginata

Shellblowing Sohei

Warrior monks known as sohei were once a troublesome class of Buddhist Priests who used to dispense Buddha’s Blessings with the sharp edge of a naginata. They quarreled amongst themselves, with the Imperial Court, and with local Daimyo (warlords). They needled one daimyo so much that he finally decided that enough was enough and promptly set out to burn them out – literally. This was Oda Nobunaga one of the great unifiers of premodern Japan and the site of his vengeance was Enryaku-ji Temple on Mt. Hiei north of Kyoto. In 1571, he razed many of the temples there, killing and burning to death several thousand priests and their families.

Snoozy Sohei

The sohei of Hosen-ji were of milder disposition being that most had seen far too many Setsubun to be of any threat to anyone. After the aging sohei were seated, a bonfire was lit and prayer sticks were burnt in order to convey their messages heavenward.

Chanting Priest

I did not stick around for the mame-maki session as I had one more place to visit but I did get a spot of sake and an orange for my troubles. I then headed swiftly northwards to the town on Ashikaga in Tochigi Prefecture which is almost two hours outside of Tokyo.

Ashikaga Samurai

Ashikaga is a small town that was the hometown of the ancestors of the Ashikaga Shoguns (1336-1573). To celebrate Setsubun and their town’s past, Ashikaga puts on a procession of armored samurai. The armor covers the time period of the 12th Century to the beginning of the 17th Century, a time when Japan entered a period of peace known as the Edo Era when armor was no longer a necessity.

Minamoto-no-Yoshitsune – hero of the Gempei War (1159-1189)

At the local temple, the armored samurai performed a short mame-maki. Afterwards, certain samurai went around back to fire their old-style guns. From the mid-16th Century when guns were first introduced to Japan by Portuguese traders to the early 17th Century, guns played a major role in samurai warfare. When the shooting samurai had fired their last shot, a bonfire was lit and the all the samurai did a rallying cry. Then the ceremony concluded and with that my long Setsubun finally drew to a close at 9 o’clock at night – but I still had a long train ride back home! The devils of bad luck and winter had been defeated but the devils of sleep were demanding their due and there weren’t enough beans to drive them away.

Am 3. Februar ist setsubun, eines der für Nichtjapaner vielleicht rätselhaftesten Feste überhaupt. Denn der Hauptbestandteil dieses Festes ist ein Ritual mit dem Namen mamemaki (豆撒き – Bohnenverstreuen), bei dem das Familienoberhaupt geröstete Bohnen aus der Haustür wirft. Manchmal wirft man sie auch auf einen als oni (鬼 – Dämon, Teufel) verkleideten Nachbarn oder Großvater (oder ein anderes Familienmitglied), was in einem Riesenspaß für die jüngsten Familienmitglieder endet.

Aber wozu das Ganze? Mit dem Märchen von Jack und der Bohnenranke hat es jedenfalls nichts zu tun.

Eigentlich ist es ganz einfach. Ursprünglich beschrieb das Wort setsubun den letzten Tag einer Jahreszeit, es gab also vier davon im Jahr. Im Lauf der Zeit verloren aber scheinbar die anderen drei an Bedeutung, sodass sich der Begriff heute fast ausschließlich auf das Frühjahrs-setsubun bezieht. Man kann es gewissermaßen als eine Art Silvester ansehen, begleitet von einem besonderen Ritual um das Böse des Vorjahrs abzuwaschen und schlimme Geister, die einen vielleicht im kommenden Jahr mit Krankheiten oder anderem Unglück heimsuchen könnten, fernzuhalten.
Traditionsgemäß ist es Aufgabe des toshiotoko (der Mann, der laut Chinesischem Kalender im gleichen Jahr geboren ist, im Moment wäre es also jemand, der im Jahr des Ochsen geboren ist) oder des Familienoberhaupts, die Bohnen aus der Tür zu werfen. Dabei, oder wenn man gemeinsam den verkleideten Nachbarn bewirft, rufen alle gemeinsam:

„Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi“

(鬼は外! 福は内! – etwa: „Dämonen raus! Glück rein!“) Das Ganze dient also dazu, das Haus von Unglück zu reinigen.
Und damit das Glück am Ende auch wirklich kommt, werden anschließend Bohnen gegessen, und zwar von jedem genau so viele, wie man in Jahren alt ist. Mitunter isst man auch eine Bohne mehr – für das Jahr, was noch kommt.
Normalerweise handelt es sich übrigens sowohl bei den getrockneten als auch bei den Bohnen, die am Ende gegessen werden, um daizu (大豆- Sojabohnen), also den Bohnen, aus denen man auch Sojasoße, Miso, Natto und Tofu macht.

In Tempeln und Schreinen werden landesweit – meist vormittags – Festlichkeiten anlässlich des setsubun abgehalten, die meist darin bestehen, dass Priester und eingeladene Gäste mit Bohnen (manche in Gold- oder Silberpapier), Umschlägen mit Geld, Süßigkeiten und anderen Kleinigkeiten werfen, die man als Besucher natürlich fleißig einsammelt. Ich habe es leider verpasst, aber lasst euch dieses Spektakel nicht entgehen, wenn ihr die Gelegenheit dazu habt. Zusätzlich dazu verkauft jeder Supermarkt oder Kombini Bohnen, Knabbereien mit Bohnen und Oni-Masken aus Papier oder Kunststoff, damit auch wirklich alle in Stimmung kommen.

Leider verliert dieses Fest aber – trotz Fernsehshows mit Stars, Sternchen und sogar Sumoringern – langsam immer mehr an Bedeutung, erklärte mir meine Freundin Sakura. Da es kein Feiertag ist und alle ganz normal zur Arbeit gehen, wird es so von vielen Japanern vergessen. Oder es geht anscheinend im Rummel um den immer wichtiger werdenden Valentinstag ganz unter.

In diesem Sinne, helft mit, dass das Bohnenfest nicht ausstirbt! Malt für den 3. Februar eine Bohne in euren Kalender, bastelt eine Maske und fangt an, zu werfen!

P.S. Sorry, diesmal kein Foto. Aber ihr bekommt noch ein Bild, versprochen!

Night falls on the Setsubun festival at Yoshida Shrine.

Hola amigos, I know it’s been a long time since I rapped at ya’, but I’ve been pretty busy this week. I’ll try and chronicle my adventures of the next few posts, but in short I’ve gone to Ohara (a small village outside of Kyoto) to participate in Setsubun with a Japanese elementary class, learned RSS and created a blog for the KCJS program (and, because WordPress doesn’t support certain types of video embedding, recreating it on Blogger), hung out at the Setsubun festivities at Yoshida shrine in front of my apartment, had my first bike crash, gone to Osaka, discussed 70’s and 80’s era New York punk music in Japanese (under duress, unfortunately) eaten the biggest friggin’ nan I’ve ever seen, and gone to all-you-can-eat Korean barbeque and consumed enough to want to explode. Unfortunately, the last two were both today, so before I go into a coma I’ll try and recap as much as possible.

The view of Ohara from a moving van.

On Tuesday my Japanese class went on a field trip to Ohara, a small town about twenty minutes outside of Kyoto. We met up with several teachers at a Japanese elementary school, and later the pupils under their care. Eventually our slightly odd looking group proceeded to the local shrine to participate in the Setsubun festivities.

A view of the shrine grounds.

The explanation was entirely in Japanese, so I unfortunately didn’t understand as much of it as I wanted to, but I believe the occasion is centered upon the changing of the seasons as a time to bid farewell to the misfortunes of the previous season and wish for luck in the one to come. Once all four seasonal transitions were separated, but now only the first day of Spring on the lunar calendar is celebrated, which has come to be the main form of Setsubun. One of the more entertaining aspects that has emerged is the numerous customs associated with beans. There’s a belief that eating a number of beans equal to your age will grant you health and good fortune for the coming year. Additionally, a sort of bean-tossing game is played, supposedly to symbolize casting bad luck out toward the “demons” on the outside. To that end, I and my fellow KCJS students joined the elementary school children in throwing beans out over the second group of students for them to catch and eat later.

A Challenge: Can you spot the foreigner in this picture?

Out of things to throw, one little girl perhaps takes the game too far.

Later we ate mochi (a sort of rice cake) and some very salty tea that supposedly had flakes of gold taken from the nearby mines. Ohara was an interesting change from Kyoto in that it is much closer to typical rural life in Japan, while still being relatively developed. It was rather beautiful, and I think I’ll miss it.

An above view of Ohara- I wish I had gotten some better pictures now.

The job I have with KCJS has been going smoothly, though I find that combined with the homework I have for my Japanese and translation classes I have increasingly less and less free time (relatively; I still have for more than I had back at Penn). I’ve had to learn a few more computer tricks, like creating an RSS feed and how to embed music into WordPress (I’ll try and remember to do that sometime). The money from that job will hopefully pay for what I spent on the Setsubun festival and my new bike, which I crashed recently. For whatever reason I have the devil’s own luck when it comes to bike crashes, so I emerged from my relatively high velocity meeting with the sidewalk without even a cut or much soreness. I’m a little warier now, but you can’t really say you’ve broken in a bike until you’ve crashed it at least once.

My sweet bike. Also, my lunch in the basket. This type of bike with its distinctive basket is called a Mamachari, as it's commonly associated with housewives, though in areas like around Kyoto University it's more common to see students on them.

The sweet embrace of a meat-sleep awaits me, so I’ll end the post here. Next time: Osaka. All-you-can-eat. Nihilism. Giant bread. Maid cafes. Not necessarily in that order. Be there.

Music I’m Listening to Now: M. Ward, “Epistemology” (From M. Ward’s new album Hold Time, the entirety of which is currently streaming here.)

]]> http://sumojapones.wordpress.com/2009/02/04/asashoryu-y-hakuho-entre-otros-participan-en-la-ceremonia-del-setsubun/ Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:44:11 +0000 hendesu http://sumojapones.wordpress.com/2009/02/04/asashoryu-y-hakuho-entre-otros-participan-en-la-ceremonia-del-setsubun/ http://leftinfront.wordpress.com/2009/02/04/peanuts-adult-conversation-and-the-super-bowl/ Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:58:31 +0000 Charles Jeffrey Danoff http://leftinfront.wordpress.com/2009/02/04/peanuts-adult-conversation-and-the-super-bowl/

こにちわ　ありがと　くる　ぼく　の　blog. こんばん　わたし　と　たもだち　は　おしえる　はじみて　の　えいかいわ。　たのしかたですよ！

日本語

Been a nonstop week as it always is in Hamatonbetsu. Monday I spent the workday preparing my Tuesday lessons. That night, Chris and I watched the Super Bowl roughly 12 hours or so post-broadcast thanks to the magic of my father’s slingbox. Postgame, we recorded the best American sports analysis show in Hokkaido history touching on Bruce, commercials and my mvp.

Tuesday my three classes went great. While the students had trouble with the teens, I was delighted to find they all knew “24.” Three times during the day I got to celebrate “Mamemaki.” It is a Japanese February tradition of throwing beans and yelling “go away demon.” It is meant to repel evil spirits. In Honshu they throw beans, but in Hokkaido we use peanuts. Another interesting aspect is that you are supposed to eat the same number of peanuts as your age. Why I’m not quite sure, but I hope it’s nothing too serious as I lost count and may have eaten 24.

That night at judo I got thoroughly abused by my 12 year old female students.

Today’s classes went smooth. The students seemed to enjoy my speech on American delicacies. I started on the East coast, and introduced them to Philly cheesesteaks, clam chowder, cheesecake and new york style pizza. Tonight I taught my first eikaiwa, or adult conversation class, along with Chris and Ayla. We took it slow to start, with self-introductions and asking our pupils what they wanted to learn about English. The overwhelming response was conversational English, so we focused on greetings. We exposed them to “How’s it going?” and “What’s up?”

Do you have any other ideas for casual greetings we should teach?

Notes

• The Lake Kutcharo blog has continued to post excellent articles. On February 2nd they showcased some stunning Eagle shots. FYI eagles here are bigger than American bald eagles. Today’s entry highlighted how little snow we’ve been getting this winter juxtaposing 2008 and 2009 shots of the same cliff.
• In a comment on a recent post, my father shared my first Japanese hospital experience.

Écrit près Charles Jeffrey Danoff  |  http://friendfeed.com/danoff

This delightful chalkboard image was made by Ms. Sawano who teaches third grade at an elementary school in Shizuoka City, Japan. The image depicts a red ogre (actually a little girl wearing a mask) running away from soy beans which have been tossed at him. Ms Sawano drew the image on her classroom chalkboard for the delight of her students and to mark the February 3rd Japanese festival of Setsubun. The beans are shown along with a special red-colored wooden box called fuku masu (luck box) which are used to hold beans during the mamemaki bean tossing event.

The event of Setsubun traditionally marked the passage of one season into the next and was therefore in the past celebrated on the day before the new season would commence. Contemporary Japanese however, typically participate in Setsubun activities only on February 3rd which in the past represented the day before the start of the spring season. Community Setsubun events are held at Buddhist temples as well as Shinto shrines while family members may participate in an activity called mamemaki (literally “bean toss”) which is thought to symbolically cleanse the home (a form of spiritual spring cleaning). The head of the home (traditionally the father) will done a fierce ogre (oni) mask while family members toss soy beans at him while chanting oni wa soto fuku wa uchi which roughly translates as “out with bad luck and in with good”. In the past when Japanese families were often quite large the role of the oni would be played by the household toshiotoko, identified as the male family member who was born on the same animal year in accordance with the Chinese calendar.

Learn more about Japan at www.Shinto-Religion.com
Or visit us on eBay at The Old Tokaido

On February 3, Setsubun is celebrated with a traditional bean-throwing ceremony known as mamemaki held at many temples and shrines all over Japan. The beans are supposed to drive away the evil spirits that bring misfortune and bad health with them.  Also, according to the lunar calendar, Setsubun marks the last day of winter, or the start of spring.

At Tokyo’s Zojoji Temple, with the famous Tokyo Tower in the background, the bean-throwing event was conveniently held between noon and 1 pm during the lunch hour.

At home, children throw beans at their father wearing a demon or devil mask to ward off or banish bad luck.  The picture below at Zojoji temple shows the demons, also called oni (dressed in blue and red below) terrorizing the children – or actually, it looks like the other way around, the demons had no chance, they were pelted mercilessly by the young uns with beans!

People throng the compounds of temples to vie with one another for beans and other goodies which are thrown by priests and celebrities shouting “Fuku-wa-uchi, Oni-wa-soto!” (Fortune in, Devils out!) to drive away imaginary devils.  I thought Japanese were polite and timid people, but there was a lot of pushing and shoving to grab the goodies using hands and bags.  A couple of times, a group of people in front of me actually fell on the ground!

At the temples or shrines, celebrities (like famous sumo wrestlers, idols or TV stars) are invited during the bean throwing event.  I am not familiar with any Japanese celebrities, except for the Indian enka singer Chadha (I only know this because he was also pictured in Japan Today and it was hard to miss him being the only non-Japanese participant).  Can anyone recognize any other celebrities in these pictures?

My haul (catch) for the day (the white package contained a hanky and a pair of socks), not bad with one hand holding on to my camera … it is also good to be tall

For more information, you can also read TokyoFive’s blog post and Samurai Dave’s 2007 and 2008 blog posts about this unique event.

Setstubun is an old Japanese tradition on the first day of spring every year. Usually a man of the house wears an oni mask (a Japanese demon), and everyone else throws peanuts at him while chanting “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!” which means “Demons out! Good luck in!”. Since I was the only man at home I got to wear the oni mask.

Normally on setsubun it’s traditional to throw roasted soybeans, but in the Tohoku area we throw shelled peanuts.

Sometimes it hurt when I was getting hit with the peanuts. We had to go around to each room of the house and do the same thing. Another tradition that we did was eating a very long rolled sushi. You have to face a certain direction (this year was east by northeast), hold the sushi with two hands, and eat the whole thing without talking. Doing all of these things will give you good luck throughout the year. I did all of them so hopefully my luck will be really good!

He looks very rude, doesn’t he? since he is taking a big bite on a whole sushi-roll.
Yesterday, it’s Setsubun day in Japan, and traditionally, you eat a whole sushi roll without cutting it into pieces. It’s supposed to bring you a happy year if you can eat all of a whole roll in looking toward the lucky direction. This year, it is the east-northeast 東北東. This custom has been originally carried on in Osaka area but now it becomes popular all over the Japan due to the promotion by the producers.

You can learn more about Setsubun on Tokyo5’s site. →★http://tokyo5.wordpress.com/

Yesterday was 節分 (Setsubun).

Click here to read a post I wrote last week about it.

On this holiday (the first day of Spring in the old Lunar calendar), people (usually children) throw soy beans at someone dressed as the 鬼 (demon) (usually the father) while shouting 「鬼は外！福は内！」 (“Bad luck out! Fortune in!”).

Setsubun demon masks.

Also, many temples and shrines have festivals on 節分 (Setsubun) that often include sumo wrestlers and other celebrities throwing beans at the crowd.

Tokyo’s 増上寺 (Zoujyouji Temple) is one of the most popular places at 節分 (Setsubun).

Setsubun 2009 at Zoujyouji

This year’s celebrities at 増上寺 (Zoujyouji Temple) included Chadha, the Indian singer of Japanese Enka music and Tamao Nakamura, an actress.

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Tomorrow, the world famous annual 札幌雪祭 (Sapporo Snow Festival) begins and goes for one week.

2009 札幌雪まつり

I went to this festival in 1992. It was great! I’d like to go again one day.

A highlight of the festival are the big, elaborate snow sculptures.

Click here to visit the 札幌雪祭 (Sapporo Snow Festival) website in 日本語…or click here to visit the English version.

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横浜中華街 (Yokohama Chinatown) is having various 春節 (Chinese New Year) events until February 28.

You should check it out if you have a chance…even though the best parts (lion dance, dragon dance, etc) were on January 26, the date of Chinese New Year this year…there are still parades are other things scheduled various days this month.
Click here to visit the official 横浜中華街 (Yokohama Chinatown) website’s 春節 (Chinese New Year) page. (Japanese only).

I wrote a post about Chinese New Year (click here to see it) and I mention in that post about the difference between the Chinese dragon dance and the Japanese one.

At New Years time, both China and Japan also have lion dances…but, just like the Chinese and Japanese dragons are quite different, so are the Chinese and Japanese lions.

The Chinese one:

Chinese Lion dance

The Japanese one looks and moves quite different. In Japan, it’s called 「獅子舞」 (Shishimai):

Japanese "Shishimai" Lion Dance

Today is Setsubun – the day before the beginning of spring. On this day the Japanese perform a mamemaki (bean scattering) ceremony to “cleanse away all the evil of the former year and drive away disease-bringing evil spirits for the year to come”.

A few photos here. We didn’t really do it properly – it’s a bit too cold to be standing outside having beans chucked at you. Should have done it this morning when it was lighter (for better pics) and a bit warmer.

On February 3rd, Setsubun Day, Japanese people throw roasted beans in and around their houses to keep away evil, death, and bad luck. They are mostly kids, flinging beans at imaginary demons in their houses, saying “Oni wa soto, Fuku wa uchi!”, which literally means “out with the demons and in with fortune!” Lévi-Strauss would say something about the beans as an anthropological metaphor of myth. You can get a bag of beans with a paper-made demon mask at your local supermarket this week. Fathers play the role of the demon reluctantly on that night. Don’t throw a beanball to your dad!

Oni origami

Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi! Out with the devil!  In with happiness!  That’s what’s said on February 3rd in some households and shrines in Japan.   Not to mention the beans that go flying all over the house or wherever.  It’s Setsubun,the beginning of a new season (spring).  I’m all for driving out “devils” and whatever distractions or nusances that come my way, especially things that drive me crazy.

February 3rd is Setsubun (節分) in Japan.  Setsubun marks the beginning of Spring, according to the Japanese lunar calendar.  It’s not a holiday, just special day.

There is a ritual associated with Setsubun, which is a kind of cleansing ritual.  There is a chant: おに は そと、ふく は うち, which means “devil get out, happiness come in”.  The ritual is called ‘mamemaki’ (豆撒き), which means ‘bean scattering’.  Roasted soybeans (irimame – 炒り豆) are thrown out of the front door of the house by the eldest man of the house, traditionally.  The family member wears a devil mask as he does this, and says the chant.  Then, it is traditional to eat soy beans – either one for each year of your life, or one for each year plus one for the coming year.  The whole thing is a kind of new year’s ritual.

As with all holidays and festivals in Japan, the shops are full of Setsubun goodies, like these ones I picked up at my local supermarket.

In this pack there is a paper devil mask, some roasted soybeans, and various other sweets and crackers.  I especially like the candy feet!

I’m not sure if my neighbours would appreciate me throwing soybeans around the apartment block, but I’ll happily eat some beans to mark the occasion, and try to bring the happiness in for the coming year!

Next Tuesday (February 3, 2009) will be 節分 (Setsubun).

I wrote a little bit about it on my site’s FAQ page. (Click here to read it).

You can buy 節分 (Setsubun) beans and 鬼 (demon) masks at stores in Japan this time of year. On this holiday, the father in homes with children wears the demon mask (it’s not a scary demon) and the children throw the beans at him while shouting 「鬼は外、福は内!」 (“Out with the bad luck, in with the good!” (lit. “Demon out, Fortune in!”)).

Setsubun sets at a store in Tokyo.

After the kids throw the beans, the 鬼 (demon) runs away. The children have banished bad luck from the home for the year!
Then everyone in the family picks the beans off the floor and eats them (floors in Japanese homes are clean because noone wears shoes indoors). You’re supposed to eat the number of beans that corresponds to your age.

Another thing that is popular on 節分 (Setsubun) is to visit a major temple (for example, 浅草寺 (Sensou-ji Temple) in 浅草 (Asakusa, Tokyo)) for their 節分 (Setsubun) event.
If you have a chance, you should see it. I have to work on Tuesday, so I can’t go…but I’ve been to 節分 (Setsubun) events many times.
At these events, a famous sumo wrestler or celebrity who was born in the same Chinese zodiac sign as the current year will throw 節分 (Setsubun) beans at the crowd.

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February 11 is 建国記念日 (National Foundation Day).
Click here to read my short FAQ about it.

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Just as it is in Western countries, February 14 is 「バレンタイン・デー」 (Valentine’s Day).
But it’s celebrated differently here. In Western countries, men give chocolate or gifts to women on 「バレンタイン・デー」 (Valentine’s Day)…but in Japan, women give chocolate to men on this day.

Not just any chocolate. And not just one man. She makes homemade chocolate for her boyfriend (or husband and sons), and also gives 義理チョコ (Obligation Chocolate) to male co-workers, boss, brother-in-law, etc.

(Click here to read my FAQ about it.)

Then one month later, on March 14, it’s 「ホワイト・デー」 (White Day). This day is closer to Western-style Valentine’s Day, because men give chocolate or gifts to every women who gave them chocolate on Valentine’s Day. The most expensive for his girlfriend (or wife and daughters).

(Click here to read my FAQ about “White Day“.)

A store's Valentine gifts for young kids.

The Valentines gift that I want!

Well, this year, Japan’s biggest chocolate company, 「森永」 (Morinaga), is offering a series of chocolates this 「バレンタイン・デー」 (Valentine’s Day) aimed at couples who would like to do 「バレンタイン・デー」 (Valentine’s Day) the “Western style” (men give chocolate to women).

They packaged these chocolates with all the writing backwards because that’s what Western-style 「バレンタイン・デー」 (Valentine’s Day) is in Japan. Backwards.

All of the writing is backwards.

"Morinaga"'s line-up of reverse chocolates.

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Last year, the Japan Tourism Board tried a “Yokoso! Japan Weeks” campaign to lure visitors to Japan…and I guess it worked, because right now until February 28, 2009 is “Yokoso! Japan Weeks 2009“.

(「ようこそ」 (Yokoso (or “youkoso”)) means “Welcome” in Japanese.)

During this campaign, there are many specials and sales to help foreign visitors enjoy Japan.

If you plan to visit Japan, the official “Yokoso! Japan Weeks 2009” website has information that will be helpful. And if you visit during by February 28, 2009, there’s a coupon on the site that you can print out and use a stores listed on the website.
(Click here to visit the official “Yokoso! Japan Weeks 2009” website).

Also, if you’re planning to visit Japan (or you’re already here), and you have any questions…feel free to ask me via comment on this blog (or Email) and I’ll try to help.

http://samuraidave.wordpress.com/2007/02/06/setsubun-devils-driven-out-in-japanese-spring-ritual/
Setsubun is February 3rd and it’s kind of like Groundhog Day, New Years, and Halloween all rolled up into one. It’s a day where Japanese seek to drive Oni or Devils from their homes by throwing beans at them. Oni don’t like beans – makes them go blind apparently.

Also many temples and shrines have mami-maki which is where people throw beans and other items at gathered crowds. To catch these items is to bring you good luck all year.

This Setsubun a sudden snowstorm struck in Tokyo. A rather ominious sign as the Setsubun is a Spring Ritual and exorcising the devils is like driving Winter out. I think it was a sneak attack by the Setsubun Devils myself. However the ritual must have worked because the next morning the sun was out.
Background music by Super Girl Juice:
http://www.sgchannel.com

(um besser fangen zu können ins Bild klicken)
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鬼は外! 福は内!