Setsubun

The bean-throwing descends from tsuina, also called oni-yarai, a rite for expelling pestilence adopted from China and performed at the imperial court on the last night of the year from at least the early eighth century. A masked exorcist, the hososhi, with four golden eyes, drove invisible demons out of the palace with shouts, spear and shield. Over the centuries the roles inverted, and the hososhi himself came to be seen as the oni to be chased away.

By the Muromachi period, scattering beans had joined the rite, and in the Edo period it spread to ordinary households. The explanations are layered: beans were thought to hold the life force of grain, and mame (bean) was read as ma-metsu, 'destroying evil'. The beans are roasted so that none can sprout, since a bean that took root would allow misfortune to return.

In a typical household one person, often the father, wears a paper oni mask while the children throw roasted soybeans, called fukumame ('lucky beans'), at him and out of doors and windows with the cry 'Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!'. The doors are then shut quickly to keep the luck inside. Afterwards everyone eats as many beans as their age, or one more for the year ahead, for health. In Hokkaido, Tohoku and parts of Niigata, peanuts in their shells are commonly used, because they are easier to find in the snow and to clean up.

Families and nursery schools buy the beans in small packs with a cardboard oni mask; the custom is one of the first seasonal events small children experience.

Ehomaki is a thick, uncut sushi roll eaten in silence while facing the eho, the year's lucky direction, where the calendar deity Toshitokujin resides. The custom was local to Osaka and parts of Kansai; convenience stores and supermarkets spread it across the country from the late twentieth century, and it is now one of the most visible Setsubun traditions. The roll is left uncut so that good fortune is not severed.

An older charm is hiiragi iwashi: a grilled sardine head fixed on a sprig of holly by the door. The smell of the fish lures the oni and the spiky leaves pierce its eyes, keeping it from entering. The custom is recorded from the Heian period and survives in western Japan and among traditional households elsewhere.

Large temples and shrines hold public mamemaki, in which priests, local dignitaries, sumo wrestlers and entertainers throw beans, wrapped sweets and small gifts from a stage to crowds below. Naritasan Shinshoji in Narita is the best known: because Fudo Myoo, its principal deity, is held to have the power to subdue demons, the shout there is only 'Fuku wa uchi!', without chasing any oni. Some sites connected with oni, and families whose names contain the character for oni, likewise omit 'Oni wa soto'.

In Kyoto, Yoshida Shrine holds a three-day Setsubun festival with a reenactment of the old tsuina rite by a four-eyed hososhi, and Mibu-dera stages its kyogen pantomime plays, one of which tells of a woman who drives away an oni with beans. Several Kyoto shrines and temples also have geiko and maiko perform on the day.

Setsubun belongs to the system of 24 solar terms (nijushi sekki) that divide the year by the sun's position; Risshun is the first of them. Many seasonal expressions are counted from it, such as hachijuhachiya, the 88th night after Risshun, which marks the traditional first tea harvest in early May. Seasonal greetings in letters also switch from winter to spring phrasing after Setsubun, even though February is often the coldest month of the year.