Holly and Sardine
While wandering around the streets of Iga, I came upon a sardine head attached to a piece of holly. The entire contraption was attached to someone’s door, just beside the mail slot.
My mother explained that this is a very old custom, and is intended to help ward off demons or oni. As you know from previous posts, it is just past Setsubun in Japan, when warding off demons is a top priority.
As this intelligent site explains:
. . . The holly is said to poke the demon’s eyes out when it tries to enter a house, and both the smell and the smoke of sardines will drive them away. The custom of furnishing holly is much older, as a matter of fact older by about a thousand years, than the practice of “mamemaki” or the scattering beans on setsubun. Because holly is said to lose the sharp points in its leaves after sixty to seventy years, it is called a kisshou (felicitous) tree, a tree that gets rounder as it ages.
Lol i can just imagine a demon trying to fit through the letter box and then poking his eye on a piece of holly
February 6th, 2006 at 12:29 amGreat eye, Marie and great pic.
Wow, never saw or heard of that before. You should publish a book of this stuff.
February 6th, 2006 at 10:42 pmWell, I only learned what this was because of my Mom
I agree with you Tom — the image of the oni being felled by a piece of holly is priceless.
February 7th, 2006 at 6:52 pm[...] Back in February, Marie Mockett posted some interesting photos here about the Japanese tradition of placing holly and sardine heads on door fronts during Setsubun there. Her mother explained that it was is a very old custom, and is intended to help ward off demons (oni). [...]
June 3rd, 2006 at 2:48 pm