Demon Masks, Soy Beans,Thick Sushi Rolls and Sardine Heads Posted on Doorways- Celebrating SETSUBUN ( the Eve of the First Day of Spring) in Japan
By Avi Landau
Most of the world cultures that I can think of have (or had) their own special ways of keeping evil spirits at bay, or even better, far away. Japan is probably the industrialized country with its traditional demon-fighting repertoire most intact. One of the most important and popular of the occasions on which exorcisms are appropriate is SETSUBUN (節分) usually celebrated on February 3rd, the day before the first day of spring (risshun, 立春). The main technique used is bean-throwing (豆まき）, highly effective and plenty of fun!
Dressed up as a demon for SETSUBUN!
Usually, Dad wears a demon (oni) mask, easily purchased at any convenience store, and the kids proceed to pelt him with dried soy beans (from packets available at the same stores). While they do this, they shout “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!” (Evil out, Good Fortune in!). This is done at the entrance to the house, and then in the other rooms. When the beans are all used up, they are gathered up and each family member usually eats the same number of beans as his/her age. Beans can also be offered to the Shinto and Buddhist altars.
This ceremony remains one of the most popular of the traditional evil fighting customs and you can enjoy the ceremony in various forms at temples and shrines throughout Japan as well as on TV. (You might catch a scene of sumo wrestlers in masks being pelted by excited kids.)
One of the other techniques for keeping evil away in this season has not fared as well as the bean throwing. I’m referring to YAIKAGASHI, the holly （ hiiragi ヒイラギ） and dried sardine amulets which in not very former times would adorn the entranceways of most houses in this area ( and still do in the old town of Hojo where I live- in fact they can be seen at door posts ALL YEAR ROUND near my house!).
Traditionally the YAIKAGASHI could also contain garlic or welsh onions ( negi) or even some singed strands of human hair!
Since holly has thorned leaves, it was thought to repel demons who were afraid to get poked in the eye, and the sardines would do the same job with their unpleasant, fishy smell. Though the use of these amulets has decreased rapidly over recent years, I have still found a few around town.
I’ve also taken some pictures of SANPO, containers for soy beans made out of origami paper by nursery school kids.
Another way to celebrate SETSUBUN (or desecrate it by joining in on its commercialization) is to buy the EHO-MAKI (恵方巻き） sushi rolls which are being sold at all the convenience stores and being promoted as efficacious for bringing good fortune by pointing the roll in the properly auspicious directions.
So, there you have it. Take YOUR choice of how you want to keep EVIL away!
See more on EHO-MAKI and a much more comprehensive explanation of SETSUBUN (節分) see my article:
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Excellent Site for Tsukuba Moms
I think the foreign population has found a true kindred spirit in Kumi, a Japanese mom who is living in Tsukuba. According to Kumi's blog, she lived in the US for two years and found it quite challenging to live in another culture. She started her Tsukuba Mom site so that she could help mothers and children in Tsukuba.
She only started her blog in early November, but she has already posted seven good blog articles on her site. Topics currently include food, medicine, school, and events. I think that she will be an excellent resource for moms (and others) in Tsukuba.
(I think I will also invite her to join the TsukuBlog team, if she is willing!)
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Faces for Father’s Day
A wallet, necktie or new set of golf clubs are fine Father's Day gifts. But nothing could bring a bigger smile to a dad's face than his portrait executed in crayon by his own toddler. And what better subject is there for all the budding young Hiroshiges and Sharakus out there than that big face, which all googly-eyed, has been cootchy-cooing at them since their eyes have started to focus?
Seibu Department Store has been displaying hundreds of such Father's Day portraits as part of its Chichi-no-Hi (父の日, Father's Day) campaign. They are sure to bring a smile to ANYONE who goes up to the 6th floor to check them out. Though these works lack polish and technique (they are by 3 year-olds!), they exude color, love and joy of life -- and what could be better than that? And though we are grown up now, we STILL can't escape those images of the big faces which peered down at US when WE were in OUR cribs. This exhibition will bring back a flood of memories and feelings.
Father's Day was introduced to Japan after WWll and is held on the 3rd Sunday in June. Though at first completely overshadowed by Mother's Day in terms of gift giving and spending, Dad's Day has been slowly but surely catching up as family dynamics have been changing (more time spent with papa) and advertising campaigns have started to sink in.
The 6th floor of Seibu often has special events which are worth checking out. This month they will be having summer gifts (o-chugen) on display, and even if you don't plan on sending these beautifully packaged and very over-priced boxes of juice, salad oil etc. to YOUR boss, in-laws, professor, or go-between (nakodo), many Japanese people do, and it is interesting to see all the different gifts and the lines of customers doing their duty.
The 6th floor events that I most look forward to are the Eki-Ben Fairs which bring together all the famous train station boxed lunches from around Japan, and the regional food fair which gives you a chance to taste and purchase delicacies for various prefectures, both far and near.
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Faces For Fathers Day ( revisited)- and a bit on the history of that special day as it is celebrated in Japan!
By Avi Landau
A wallet, necktie or new set of golf clubs are fine Father’s Day gifts. But nothing brings a bigger smile to a dad’s face than his portrait executed in crayon by his own toddler. And what better subject is there for all the budding young Hiroshiges and Sharakus out there than that big face, which all googly-eyed, has been cootchy-cooing at them since their eyes have started to focus?
Seibu Department Store has been displaying hundreds of such Father’s Day portraits as part of its Chichi-no-Hi (父の日, Father’s Day) campaign. They are sure to bring a smile to ANYONE who goes up to the 6th floor to check them out. Though these works lack polish and technique (they are by 3 year-olds!), they exude color, love and joy of life — and what could be better than that? And though we are grown up now, we STILL can’t escape those images of the big faces which peered down at US when WE were in OUR cribs. This exhibition will bring back a flood of memories and feelings.
Father’s Day was introduced to Japan after WWll and is held on the 3rd Sunday in June. Though at first completely overshadowed by Mother’s Day in terms of gift giving and spending, Dad’s Day has been slowly but surely catching up as family dynamics have been changing (more time spent with papa) and advertising campaigns have started to sink in.
The 6th floor of Seibu often has special events which are worth checking out. This month they will be having summer gifts (o-chugen) on display, and even if you don’t plan on sending these beautifully packaged and very over-priced boxes of juice, salad oil etc. to YOUR boss, in-laws, professor, or go-between (nakodo), many Japanese people do, and it is interesting to see all the different gifts and the lines of customers doing their duty.
The 6th floor events that I most look forward to are the Eki-Ben Fairs which bring together all the famous train station boxed lunches from around Japan, and the regional food fair which gives you a chance to taste and purchase delicacies for various prefectures, both far and near.
Oh!- and here are two versions of a song I wrote about the joys of fatherhood! They were recorded byThe TenGooz !
Enjoy:
http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/116593
and
http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/569922
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Fiery (and noisy) Fun at The Tabanka Festival (タバンカ祭) Held at The Venerable Daiho Hachimangu Shrine in Shimotsuma- on September 12th and then AGAIN on the 14th!
Young men dressed in white run around swinging burning bundles of straw at the Tabanka Festival
A unique tradition! Tatami mats, wooden kettle-lids, and earthen-ware jars are thrown out of the shrines worship hall to commemorate a fire which was extinguished (using these same things) back in the year 1370
Tatami mats and wooden lids are repeatedly slammed to the ground ( stone pavement), around straw fires creating a gun-shot noises
Young men clad in white smash tatami mats and wooden lids to the ground while others runs around waving burning bundles of straw at the tabanka-sai in Shimotsuma City (Sept. 12 and 14th)
In the year 1370 a fire broke out at a temple affiliated with what is now the Daiho Hachimangu Shrine (before the Meiji Restoration of 1868 there was often no distinction between Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines). Alert priests and novices, however, were able to quickly extinguish the blaze before it got out of control- by smothering it with tatami mats and the large wooden lids used for traditional rice kettles.
To this day, the quick thinking and effective action which was taken nearly 700 years ago in putting out that potentially disasterous blaze is remembered at the curious TABANKA-SAI, held twice every year ( on September 12th and 14th) at the Daiho-Hachimangu Shrine in what is now Shimotsuma ( about 30 minutes by car from Tsukuba).
The Haiden (worship hall) of The Daiho Hachiman Shrine, said to be the oldest Hachiman Shrine in The Kanto Region, at sundown just before the onset of the Tabanka Festival on Sept. 12th 2010
At 7 pm on the evenings of the festival two signal fireworks are launched, each containing 4 blasts. About a dozen parishioners (UJIKO), all men, have at that time already enter the shrine`s worship hall (HAIDEN ,拝殿) to be blessed purified by the priests who then proceed to make offerings to the Gods (who in this case, as this is a Hachiman Shrine, are the deified spirits of Emperor Ojin and his mother Jingu Kogo). For this particular festival a special food offering is made- white rice and boiled wax gourd ( TO-GAN), which in olden days was considered a seasonal delicacy.
At the same time a few dozen visitors, mostly locals, gather outside trying to catch a glimpe of (or photograph) the proceedings, and more importantly, take up position for what will happen next- something which is truly unique among Japanese Festival and rites!
When darkness has set in fires are lit to illuminate the path to the shrine
White rice and boiled TO-GAN (冬瓜), wax gourd, are presented as offerings to the Gods, as part of the preliminary ceremonies. Because of this, an alternative name for the festival has been the TO-GAN Festival (冬瓜まつり)
Things get underway at 7 PM with prayers and purification rites inside the worship hall. This takes about 30 minutes.
Here is what happens at around 7:30 pm.
A group of young men, dressed head to toe in white ( with their faces covered and feet in special short white socks) come to the edge of the worship hall and hurl a load of tatami mats, kettle-lids and earthen-ware jars out into the crowd! Since the locals know what is coming they make sure to stand clear. Anyone who is not prepared might very well get knocked on the head with a jar, lid, or even a tatami! At the same time a drum beat strikes up. This rhythm will be kept up for the subsequent hour.
The locals then scramble to pick up shards of the pottery which has broken after hitting the ground. These fragments are believed to be lucky talismans which can help guarantee good health ( I hope they work, because I got some!).
Two large bundles of straw are set before the shrine`s worship hall. These will be set afire after the tatamis and wooden lids have been tossed out .
Young men dressed in white ready to begin the fiery fun
These same men-in-white come down out of the shrine, and two of them take up bundles of straw, which are then set on fire. Last night, these torches almost set the whole temple ablaze!
Two large flaming torches are born down the stone paved pilgrimage path
These torches are then carried down the worshippers path towards the main gate of the shrine, where there is a large open space.
Things then start to get pretty zany. Bundles of straw are set alight creating bon-fires on the path ( which is paved with large stones). The young men stand around the bon-fires and smack tatami and kettle lids WITH ALL THEIR MIGHT on the ground. This creates a blast-like sound not unlike that of gun-fire. This is done repeatedly for more than an hour, as the fires are kept going ( with plenty of straw stacked nearby), and the men taking turns using either mats or lids.
After the opening ritual has finished small tatami mats, wooden kettle-lids, and earthen jars are thrown out of the worship hall. People outside scramble to pick up pieces of the broken jars as they are believed to guarantee good health.
Getting ready for the amin event- putting on the short white socks ( tabi)
Local residents wait outside the worship hall for the mats, lids and jars to be thrown out. They scramble to pick up fragments of the shaterred jars which are believed to be lucky talismans for guaranteeing good health. I picked up these pieces, which fell at my feet on Sept 12th 2010
One of the wooden kettle lids which are used in the festival- smashed repeatedly to the stone path on which a bon-fire has been lit
Meanwhile, other men take up straw, one burning bundle in each hand, and run around the open area, much to the delight of the local children, whose cries of glee make the already cacophonous event even noisier.
It is this noise, from which this unique festival`s unique name derives ( when I mention the TABANKA MATSURI to Japanese people they are usually taken aback and ask me to repeat myself slowly, thinking that as a foreigner, I must have gotten the name wrong)- BATTAN BATTAN BATTAN, is the Japanese equivalent of the English SMACK, BAM, POW!
With all the whacking, smacking, drumming and screaming, your nerves might start to get a little frayed. After a while, each new smack will probably have you cringeing.
The locals, however, dont seen to mind. As the excitement builds, the neighborhood kids really start to get carried away, with many lining up taking turns to leap over the bon-fires.
Unlike other fire festivals around Tsukuba, there are no firemen present, and the rules are surprisingly lax. I wouldnt be surprised if someone gets seriously injured in the future with all the young men running wildly around with burning straw in both hands! Yesterday there were MANY close calls!
As I have mentioned, all of this goes on for more than an hour. I had to get back to Tsukuba and so I left the shrine while the festival was still in progress to catch the 8:27 train. Walking to the nearby unmanned station, I could still hear the smacking, drumming and screaming off in the distance.
Piles of burning straw surrounded by young men SLAMMING tatami mats and wooden kettle-lids on the stone paving- this creates quite a racket!
fires burn, tatami mats and lids are slammed while young men run around swinging flaming straw bundles
The quaint unmanned-train station just next to the Daiho Hachiman Shrine ( Daiho Station on the Joso Line)
You can get to the shrine by car ( it is not crowded, so you dont have to worry about parking), or you can go by train. Take the TX to Moriya and change to the JOSO Line. Get off at the Daiho Station! Taking that rustic old line can be half the fun!
The Daiho Hachimangu Shrine is fascinating to visit any day. In fact, it would take a separate and very long TsukuBlog article, to do it justice. The most popular time of year to visit , however, besides New Year`s, is during the hydrangea ( ajisai) season in June, as there are thousands of these deeply beautiful plants growing in the area behind the Main Hall.
Every year on Sept. 15th, a one-eyed WARA NINGYO ( Voodoo Doll) is carried through Daiho Village, symbolically cleansing the area of impurities
If you cant make it on the night of the 14th to the Tabanka event, the next day, the 15th, also offers the chance to observe an extremely rare ritual. Its called the HITOTSU MONO SHINJI ( 一つもの神事) and involves a one-eyed straw WARA NINGYO ( a sort of Japanese Voodoo Doll) which is carried out of the shrine in a procession and then taken around the surrounding neighborhood to cleanse it of impurities. This doll is then cast off into a river ( the Itokuri River) symbolically ridding the town of bad energies.
The WARA NINGYO ( Japanese Voodoo Doll) which will be used in this year`s Hitotsu Mono Rites on Sept. 15th
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