Setsubun - our first festival in Japan!

I wrote this post at the start of February but I am posting it now as it took a few weeks to get our lives and tech set up in Tokyo!

We were lucky that Setsubun happened to be so soon after we arrived in Japan with it falling on 3 February. It was our first proper weekend in Japan and it was time to immerse ourselves in traditional festivities.

So first things first...

Qiraat’s amateur guide to Setsubun:

• Setsubun literally translates as "seasonal division" and is a festival held on the day before the start of spring according to the old Japanese lunar calendar.

• The festival is marked with the ritual of driving out demons with bean throwing. Families throw roasted soybeans out of their front door or at a member of the family dressed as a demon, and they say "Demons out! Good fortune in!". There are many public celebrations at temples too.

• It is traditional to (i) eat one roasted soybean for every year of your age and (ii) eat a special sushi roll in the evening by facing the lucky direction of that year, making a wish, and eating the roll in silence.

So on to what we did to celebrate Setsubun. There were celebrations going on all across Tokyo and some of the bigger temples would attract crowds in the thousands. But we thought we’d try some of the smaller temples so we’d have a better sense of what was going on and I picked out two temples at which the celebrations sounded a bit more unusual.  Conveniently these celebrations didn’t start until the afternoon - we felt much more amenable to cultural events starting at 2pm rather than 10am.

The first celebration we went to was a parade in Shimokitazawa (an area we loved and we had put in an application to live in a flat there). We didn’t really know what to expect or have a sense of how busy it would be so we got there a little early. There was already a small crowd gathered at the temple which was the starting point for the parade. The crowd was nodding and engaging with whatever the people on stage were saying. We weren’t really getting much of what was going or didn’t have much to add other than perhaps joining in with some occasional clapping so went for a quick wander and got back to the temple just as the parade began.

Here are some photos of the main protagonists!

The musicians really helped create a sense of drama and atmosphere:

I didn't want to feel left out: 

We really enjoyed watching the parade wind down the narrow streets with people lining the path for the procession.  At this point I’ll confess I darted through the crowd like I’d never been to a Japanese festival before (oh wait that is right so perhaps I can be excused) to get ahead of the parade and attempted some selfies - with hindsight I can reveal they were pretty bad. Here’s the best one:

The parade paused in the middle of town and the bean throwing we’d anticipated commenced. People, including frail and tiny old people,  got very excitable. They got competitive. They got loud. They were borderline aggressive. Here’s a short video:

I should probably clarify that loose beans weren't thrown for the crowd to catch. But the beans were packaged in miniature bags as this is modern day Japan after all. I was fully on board with any celebration that provided snacks in little handy bags and am glad to say I managed to get my hands on a few packets. Two old ladies were standing next to us and one of them dropped her hat which I picked up (look at me being a good citizen in a country that had only been my home for a week). The two old ladies seemed extremely grateful and thanked me by giving me lots of little packets of beans that they had just caught. There was no denying that it was very sweet of them to do so. But looking back, I am thinking if perhaps it was a tad foolish of them to do so - they would  need to get their hands on a lot more beans if they were going to manage to eat a bean for every year of their life :P

Laden with beans, we set off to Hosenji Temple in Nakano for their celebrations which had sounded particularly interesting to us.

Things kicked off with a warrior monk parade. 

Then there was a fire ritual:

To finish, the warrior monks, priests, local dignitaries and of course Pipo-kun (the mascot for Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department) graced the stage and the bean throwing was underway. Except they had cranked things up here and also threw satsumas. Things felt a little more deadly than the previous bean throwing ceremony. We saw some people get absolutely nailed by satsumas hurtling towards them at great speed. But to honest, I probably wouldn't mind saying I got hit by a satsuma thrown with great passion and vigour by a warrior monk even if it may have been thrown by the chumpy police mascot - there just was no way of knowing. I am very proud to say that Wil got his hands on some satsumas for us. Fruit is super expensive here, and as I no longer have a job, I need all the free vitamin C that I can get. Here's another short video to finish.

Setting the scene for as I wrote this blog:

• Location: Sitting in bed at the Tokyo Dome Hotel.

• Weather: It is still hat and scarf weather which explains why I am in bed.

• Soundtrack: Sleep Well Beast, The National

• Bonus fact: Wondering what happened to that mask that I bought?! You’ll be glad to hear that it’s not been binned or stuffed at the back of a cupboard but I’ve already donned the mask again and wore it to record a special video message for my uncle’s 40th birthday! Not only that, the mask now proudly hangs over our fridge. And here I was worrying that the mask was a bit pricey...that thing just paid for itself!