Chasing Out The Demons
February 3rd will be Setsubun in Japan, or a “parting of seasons.” Essentially, after this day, winter will end. Traditionally, people celebrated this change by chasing out the demons, or oni, which have accumulated over the year in the homes. The weapon of choice is a handful of soybeans and the words: “Oni wa soto. Fuku wa uchi!” This roughly means: “Demons go out! Good luck come in!”
I’m in the city of Nara – a favorite place – where plans are underway to chase out the demons, or oni, in a big way. To prepare, stores have put out little demon decorations (most of the demons are cute, of course) and special packages of roast soy beans.
One sushi store was selling a “demon out good luck in” sushi special.
I found this display of oni masks which I assume actors will wear at the oni exorcism at Koufukuji later today. I’ll report back later to let you know if the demons really did go away, and if good luck really did arrive.
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that in ancient china if you were REALLY fat that meant you were...
omg i feel so bad for a that monkey help it some one plzzzz
Those oni masks are beautiful!
February 3rd, 2006 at 1:56 pmHey Marie — nice photos, thanks. I used to live in Nara (Tokyo now) and miss it especially at traditional times of year like this.
February 3rd, 2006 at 2:20 pm[...] 3 or 4 (February 3 this year). Here’s a brief Wikipedia explanation of the festival, here’s a snapshot of this year’s festivities from Marie Mockett of Japundit, and here&# [...]
February 4th, 2006 at 3:13 amI incorrectly identified the masks as coming from Gankouji. They are actually used at Koufukuji. Sorry about the confusion. My Gankouji pictures are coming shortly.
February 4th, 2006 at 5:35 pm[...] f the lantern festival at Kasuga Taisha, or Kasuga shrine, which took place in Nara during Setsubun. The grounds of the shrine are lined with hundreds of stone lanterns. These are lit twice a [...]
February 8th, 2006 at 11:15 am