Setsubun

February

Spring is coming! It doesn't feel like it today (and it snowed again yesterday) but last weekend, the weather teased us with a few balmy sunny days, up to 17 degrees. Sunday 3rd was setsubun, marking the transition to spring or risshun.

The camellia tree on our street, lightly frosted.

Originally, setsubun was celebrated just before New Year – when Japan followed the Chinese calendar. It kind of made sense to chase out the bad luck of last year, so that we can start afresh. 

You can pick up the oni masks for free when you buy the soy beans to throw.

We should throw beans to chase away evil spirits before we start the new year. Think of it as spiritual spring cleaning. I wrote about it here, last year. 

At the station last Saturday, they were having an Akita promotion, complete with guys dressed up as Namahage – the local oni, who traditionally go house to house at New Year to scare naughty children. No one was scared of them this time – kids were happily posing.

Does this kid look scared? Not at all.

Ehomaki

We sat in this year’s direction - SSE to eat a whole sushi roll without stopping or speaking. One of my friends told me that growing up, ehomaki was only a Kansai tradition, and Tokyo people thought it was weird and funny, but now everyone does it. I just bought ehomaki at the convenience store for lunch on Sunday, but when I went to the supermarket later in the afternoon, they had about 6 metres of refrigerator cabinet dedicated to ehomaki, and the crowds were crazy.  For people who don’t eat sushi, a lot of stores are selling roll cakes done up as ehomaki:  a long roll of sponge cake filled with cream and strawberries and wrapped in a chocolate crepe to mimic the nori. Delicious!

We had a roll cake "ehomaki".

Kyoto

Liza Dalby describes the many setsubun traditions celebrated in Kyoto in her book Geisha.

If you live in Kyoto, you can also visit 4 shrines in the 4 directions (this is called Shiho mairi), a tradition that many geisha still follow. Stalls sell shougazake – ginger sake – basically the milky sweet sake, with grated ginger. It's nice and warming at this time of year, but I’d rather drink Stone’s Ginger Wine, or just add ginger to regular sake.

The four shrines are: Yoshida shrine to the East; Kitano tenmangu to the west  which has gorgeous plum blossoms and a famous flea market on the 25^th of each month; Akiba Jinja (to the north) and Mibu temple near the centre of Kyoto (just south of Nijo castle). 

And if you want to see geisha at setsubun, your best bet is Yasaka shrine in Gion, where, if you’re lucky, you might catch a little package of beans and sweets thrown by local maiko. 

Setsubun celebrations at Yasaka shrine, courtesy of kyotoguide.

Setsubun 節分

February 3

Setsubun marks the beginning of spring, or the start of the New Year on the old calendar (and it’s about the same time as Chinese New Year). Soy beans are believed to have the power to drive away evil spirits, so throwing them to get rid of bad luck is a good way to start the new year, or at least, new season. If you live in a house with kids, it can be really fun: Dad puts on a devil mask and the kids throw beans at him, shouting “oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi” – or out with the devils, and in with good luck. The kids love pelting Dad with beans. I threw a few dried soy beans at my husband when he got home from work, but he didn’t really appreciate it.  You’re supposed to eat one bean for every year of your life, but I don’t think they taste so good – maybe edamame (boiled soybeans) would be better!

Dried soybeans with a few sweets

For some reason, it’s become popular to eat a big sushi roll called a “futomaki” on setsubun. It has 7 ingredients (lucky 7!) and it’s usually a bit expensive – the ones I bought were 500 yen for a half roll, but they had very yummy prawn, salmon and tuna, as well as vegetables and omelette.  Apparently , this tradition started around Osaka in the Edo era,  but it’s popular all over Japan now. You should eat it whole (don’t cut it or you’ll cut the ties with your family), sitting in this year’s lucky direction, without speaking. The lucky direction is printed on the sushi pack if you buy it. 

You can see the lucky direction on the pack

This year was north, north west, so we had to face the corner of the room and it was hard not to laugh.  Anyway, the futomaki was delicious. I suspect the reason the futomaki or ehou maki (lucky direction sushi roll) has taken off is that it’s a good retail opportunity.