Setsubun 2015
My first Setsubun in Japan was in 2015 when I lived in Ube, Yamaguchi. My eikaiwa job didn’t start until 3:30 most days and so, I was able to attend events and do things before my job such as the Setsubun events even though it wasn’t a national holiday. I visited two Setsubun related events on this day, a bonfire at Ube’s Kotozaki Hachimangu and a bean tossing event at Ube’s downtown Nakatsuse Shrine.
Getting to the shrine takes about 20 minutes and just as I got their I realized that I had forgotten my camera battery, so I was drastically in danger of missing the opening rituals, however, I made a few speedy decisions and made it back with a few minutes before the ceremonies for the bonfire started. The bonfire was to burn leftover New Year’s decorations among other things, so local residents brought things that they wanted to burn. This first ceremony felt very local and it felt like most people there were pulling a part, businessmen who sponsored the event, Shinto priest performing rituals, and a few kindergartens brought their kids here to participate and wear oni masks that they made in school.
The bonfire itself was pretty enjoyable, I got to watch the entire fire from when it first lit up by means of priests and sponsoring businessmen untl the entire fire was black and the fire died down. After the ceremony, I met an old man who really wanted to talk to me in English and he pushed me to drink some amazake (甘酒/literally: sweet sake), which usually is against my moral code to drink, but I guess amazake is often alcohol free or extremely low, so shrug, it tasted interesting. In general this festival was very enjoyable and an interesting start to my first setsubun in Japan.
After grabbing some lunch with my friend, I went to visit the Setsubun festival at Nakatsuse shrine. This one seemed more of what I would imagine a normal setsubun event is like, many of the popular symbols that one would fine at a Setsubun festival, beans and oni. Many people would come to the shrine to be blessed by a priest (as I, myself tried). There was also a bean throwing event every hour where people standing on the roofs of the shrine would toss down packs of fukumame beans (of which I grabbed quite a few, fukumame beans are lucky roasted soybeans). They were also passing out mamecha (豆茶/bean tea), which was an interesting tea. I also got to meet one of the oni throwing the lucky beans and was able to pose for a few pictures with him (he actually asked to take pictures with me!). Another thing that they had was fukukuji (福くじ/lucky lottery), where you can take a random paper and you get a candy of random sizes called 福fukuame (飴/lucky candy), including some candy the size of large umbrellas, I however only got a small one the size of a pen. Not long after this I had to go to work, but it was an eventful Setsubun.
