Setsubun: Mamemaki, Dates, Senso-ji and Regional Customs

At a front door in Japan, someone in a paper oni mask ducks while a child flings handfuls of roasted soybeans and shouts at the top of her lungs. Late winter has its own noisy ritual, and it is called Setsubun. It is a celebration of beans, devils and good fortune, and it unfolds in homes, at temples and on the dinner table, with customs that change from one region to the next.

What is Setsubun?

Setsubun is the household and temple celebration built around driving out bad luck and welcoming good fortune, and its heart is a ritual called mamemaki. Roasted soybeans, known as fukumame (fortune beans), are thrown out the front door or at a family member wearing an oni mask, the oni being the horned demon of Japanese folklore. The thrower shouts ‘Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!’, which means ‘Devils out! Fortune in!’

The scene is half ceremony and half game. Someone is chosen to play the demon, the mask goes on, and the household turns the doorway into a small stage. Beans bounce across the entry floor, the shouting gets louder, and the demon retreats into the night. Then the door closes, and the luck stays inside.

Eating the beans, one for every year

Once the throwing is done, the beans change roles. It is customary to eat roasted soybeans, one for each year of your life, plus one extra for good luck in the coming year. The count follows kazoedoshi, the traditional way of reckoning age in Japan.

For a traveler, this is the part of Setsubun that is easiest to join in spirit. The beans are crunchy, nutty and lightly toasted, a plain snack that carries a surprising amount of meaning. Eating them is a small private wish for the months ahead, shared around a table with whoever happens to be there.

Sardine heads, holly and ginger sake

Beans are not the only charm. Small decorations called hiiragi iwashi, made of a sardine head and holly leaves, are put up at the entrance of houses to ward off evil spirits. The idea is that the prickly leaves and the smell of the fish keep unwelcome visitors from crossing the threshold.

There is a drink for the occasion as well. Shogazake, a special sake brewed with ginger, is customarily drunk on Setsubun. Its warming, slightly sharp flavor suits a cold evening, and it sits well beside a handful of roasted beans.

Ehomaki, the silent roll of the Kansai

In the Kansai area, a regional tradition is to eat eho-maki, an uncut makizushi roll, in silence. The eater faces the year’s lucky compass direction, which is determined by the zodiac symbol. Conversation stops, the roll is eaten whole, and everyone looks toward the direction of good luck.

It is a charming contrast with the shouting of mamemaki. One ritual is loud and scattered, the other quiet and focused. If you are in Kansai around the time of Setsubun, a sushi roll eaten in silence is a custom worth recognizing when you see it.

When is it?

Setsubun falls in early February, on the eve of the start of spring in the traditional calendar, so it marks the last night of winter. The name itself points to a turning of the seasons, and the noise of the beans is meant to clear out the old before the new begins. The exact day is best treated as a day in early February rather than a date to build a trip around.

What the day feels like depends on where you are. In a home, it happens in the evening, around the front door and then the dinner table. At a temple, it becomes a public event with beans thrown to a crowd. Either way, it is a winter celebration, so expect the cold air of the season rather than anything spring-like.

How a Setsubun evening unfolds at home

A household version usually starts with preparing the beans and, if there are children, deciding who wears the oni mask. In the Tohoku area, the tradition is more solemn. The head of the household takes roasted beans in his hand, prays at the family shrine, and then tosses the sanctified beans out the door.

After the throwing comes the eating. The beans are counted out by age, a hiiragi iwashi may already hang by the entrance, and in the Kansai a roll waits to be eaten in silence. Depending on the family, a cup of shogazake may close the evening.

Setsubun for travelers in early February

If your trip falls in early February, you will probably notice Setsubun before you take part in it. Roasted soybeans and oni masks are part of the season, and the custom of the roll, the sardine charm and the ginger sake give the days around it a distinct flavor. You can follow the customs as an observer, treating them the way you would any family tradition, with curiosity and a light touch.

Because so much happens behind closed doors, a temple event is the clearest way to see the ritual in public. A visit to a temple or shrine gives you the shouting, the beans and the demon without needing an invitation.

Where can you see it?

Crowds of nearly 100,000 people attend the annual Setsubun festivities there. The festival turns the temple grounds into a packed gathering, so anyone planning to watch should picture a crowd rather than a quiet ceremony.

Senso-ji in Asakusa

Senso-ji is a temple in Tokyo’s Asakusa neighborhood, and it is the setting where Setsubun becomes a spectacle. The ritual that families perform at their front doors is here staged for a very large audience, with the same call of ‘Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!’ ringing across the grounds.

Go with the right expectations. This is a crowd scene, with people packed together, looking up and waiting for the moment the beans fly. The rewards are the atmosphere and the sense of watching a household custom blown up to the scale of a neighborhood festival. Wear warm layers, since it is a winter event outdoors.

Regional variations worth looking for

Setsubun is not identical from place to place, and the differences are part of the fun. In the city of Aizuwakamatsu, people chant ‘Oni no medama buttsubuse!’ instead of the usual chant. The phrase means ‘Blind the demons’ eyes!’, a more pointed way to send the demons packing.

In the Tohoku area the ritual is a quiet household affair, with a prayer at the family shrine before the beans are thrown. In the Kansai, the signature is the uncut roll eaten in silence while facing the lucky direction. Hearing a different chant or noticing a different habit is a good sign that you are seeing a local version of the tradition.

The families that skip the beans

One curious detail: some Japanese families with the surname Watanabe do not practice mamemaki. The reason is a tradition that oni stay away from people named Watanabe, based on the legend of Watanabe no Tsuna, who vanquished oni.

It is a small story that shows how alive the folklore is. If a Japanese host named Watanabe says they skip the bean throwing, now you know why, and it makes a good conversation starter at the table.

Good to know before you go

Setsubun customs vary from one household and region to the next, so what you see in Tokyo may differ from what a family in the Tohoku area or the Kansai does. Because it is a winter evening ritual, dress for cold weather if you head to a temple. If you are invited to a home, the beans, the roll and the ginger sake are the details that will tell you which version of Setsubun you have walked into.