Feb 7

Foxhound87: Setsubun!

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Joshua Small is a First Year JET currently living in Ikaruga-cho, Nara-ken and has been chronicling his experience on his blog Snorlax87.

Setsubun is a bizarre festival in Japan. I know that calling a Japanese festival bizarre is redundant, but bear with me. Setsubun is the day before the beginning of Spring in Japan. It literally means, “seasonal division.” Roasted soybeans are thrown at an Oni (demon or ogre), while the people say “Demons out! Luck in!” (鬼は外! 福は内!, Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!?). Although this is not common practice in households anymore, most people attend a shrine or temple’s spring festival where this is done. I recently went to Setsubun.

I decided to go to Setsubun with Center of the Universe (Tenri) JETs. We hopped the bus from Tenri Station and walked about 10 minutes to Oyamato Shrine. We walked through the large gate and wandered onto the shrine’s grounds. There was a large bonfire, so we gathered there for a moment to warm up. As I was warming my hands, I noticed an older woman walk up to the fire and throw a department store shopping bag into the fire. My first thought was, “Are people burning their garbage on sacred ground?” Turns out, there was stuff inside the bag. Though no explanation was given to me, I assume people burn things that bring bad luck or memories. Again, this is a guess.

The priests had set up a stand selling bags of soybeans. Each bag had a number in it that corresponded with a prize. I won a bag of potato chips. Yay. Another JET won an apple. Um…yay? When the ceremony started, we moved to the action. 2 priests were sitting on stage next to large drums. They said something in Japanese, hit the drum, and reacted as if horrified. The “demons” had arrived.

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http://snorlax87.blogspot.com/