Setsubun Festival

Setsubun is a final day of the old luna calendar. Nowadays it is 3rd February. On the day of Setsubun we Japanese believe the bad demons come to this world from Northern East. It’s dangerous! So we have to keep out such danger demons from our world. Demons don’t like beans thrown, we usually throw beans in our house. Dad puts on some damon mask, comes from outside as a damon. boys and girls throw beans to the damon(dad), the family could keep out some bad luck.


On this Setsubun day there are many Setsubun festivals in the shrines and temples here and there. Today I visited to Shimogamo jinja shrine to watch the ceremonies about Setsubun. Throwing beans ceremony, Archery ceremony, fire burning ceremony. From the center stage the priest shot a holy arrow to the outside of the gate, it make a big sound.


After holy shooting 6 young students wearing some traditional Japanese Kimono shot arrows from the center stage to the targets. They were pretty good this year.


Finally the main event, Throwing beens ceremony. more than 10 people stood on the stage, and threw the packed beans from the stage. Many people caught the beans, sometime nice catch, sometime failed. Me? I caught 15 packs of beans and 2 packs of fortune rice cakes. Got the big win! It might be a good year 2020!


In kyoto there are 4 best famous Setsubun festivals, at Yoshida jinja shrine, Yasaka jinja shrine, Mibu dera temple and Kitano tenmangu shrine. Yoshida shrine and Yasaka shrine hold 2 days Setsubun festival on 2nd and 3rd Feb, Mibu temple and Kitano shrine hold just 1 day on 3rd Feb. If you have a plan to visit Japan, please check the schedules about Setsubun festivals and try to visit and catch the beans! Have fun!