Demons, sushi, sardines, holly and faux spring! Oh My!

Japan recently　celebrated　the　first　day　of　spring.　But　not　regular　spring,　lunar　new　year　spring.　Which　is to say, not spring at all. Setsubun kind of passes under the radar with a few exceptions. (This list is an adaptation of the Wikipedia article and what I learned at my adult class.)

1. Demons! According to an ancient story, a demon (or ogre, depending on how you want to interpret the word) showed up at a small town in the countryside, demanding a bride. The most beautiful girl had to go, but she was obviously not impressed. Her parents told her to scatter soybeans on her way to the demon/ogre’s house and to trust them. Sure enough, the soybeans grew the next year and she followed them home. But, the demon/ogre was not keen on his runaway bride, so he demanded she return. The parents cleverly gave the ogre roasted soybeans and told him they could take their daughter back if he could make the beans grow. Having seen what the soybeans did when the girl scattered him, he agreed. Alas, the roasted beans did not grow, and hence he did not get his beautiful lady back.

The modern interpretation of this is that they have someone (in my case, the principal) dress up as a demon/ogre and children throw soybeans at him while shouting “Demons out! Luck in!”. Some shrines will also toss soybeans as a purification-type ritual.

2. It is customary to eat uncut maki-zushi (巻き寿司) called Eho-Maki (恵方巻) (Lit. "lucky direction roll") on Setsubun while facing the yearly lucky compass direction, determined by the zodiac symbol of that year. Charts are published and occasionally packaged with uncut maki-zushi during February. In my adult class, they brought a flyer from a grocery store advertising the uncut sushi, but only 2 out of 10 people actually had maki-zushi that night.

3. Sardines and holly. But the Japanese versions of both, which are similar, but slightly different. Some families will also put up small decorations of sardines and holly leaves on their house entrances so that bad spirits will not enter.

And so faux spring is welcomed. I can’t wait till real spring.