Setsubun (Derek Armstrong Day)

Asia » Japan » Hiroshima
February 20th 2006

Published: February 20th 2006

If you were to look at a Japanese calendar, you’d find February 3rd marked as Setsubun. How to classify Setsubun is a bit of a problem. It is not a public holiday like New Year’s or Respect for the Aged Day or Ocean Appreciation Day, nor is it a Hallmark holiday like Valentine’s Day or Hallowe’en. So come Setsubun, you still have to go to work and to make matters worse, you don’t get chocolate. Yet in spite of these knocks, Setsubun remains a fairly important day in the calendar year. Setsubun marks the changing of the seasons, and as every foreigner living in Japan has come to appreciate, the seasons are vitally important to Japanese cultural identity. Ask any Japanese person, they’ll be too happy to tell you that only in Japan can you experience the grandeur and beauty of four distinct seasons. Now at this point you are probably wondering to yourself, “well, don’t most countries north of the equator have four seasons?” And you’d be correct. Spring, summer, autumn and winter occur pretty much everywhere else in the world at roughly the same time, but we foreigners learn quite quickly that Japanese don’t really like having this pointed out to them. Those that do venture to promote some internationalization, however well-intentioned their motives, will in all likelihood elicit the same reaction as telling a six year old in one fell swoop that neither Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, The Easter Bunny, nor their imaginary friend exist. Anyone who has tried this direct approach with six-year olds would agree that it is really not a pretty scene. Thus most of us ex-pats have learned that some illusions are better left intact, at least for the time being.

So Japan has four distinct seasons, a uniqueness that is celebrated and revered. And it is Setsubun that marks the changing of the seasons. Therefore, Setsubun is a pretty important day. Day, you say. Wait a minute, you told us just moments ago that Japan has four seasons. Would it not stand to reason that there would be four Setsubuns? Well, it used to be that, ages ago, Setsubun was observed four times a year. However, for reasons not even the Japanese could explain to me, Setsubun is now only observed once a year. February 3rd. But oh, what a day it is. Not quite worthy of a public holiday or receiving chocolates, Setsubun nonetheless presents its own unique customs. Setsubun marks the transition from winter to spring, and of course all associated images of renewal, rebirth and other adjectives prefixed with “re” apply. Naturally, one wants to start off the new season clean slate, and in order to do so, one must keep those pesky demons away. You all remember them, right? Those pesky demons are everywhere and thus figure quite prominently in Japanese folklore and mythology. Recall, for instance, Momotaro’s epic battle with the demons on Onigashima (aka Megishima). Sadly, poor Momotaro’s victory was fleeting, as those indefatigable demons keep surfacing all over Japan. And apparently, they are particularly active around the changing of winter to spring. Subsequently, Setsubun customs tend to centre on keeping the demons away as much as they do expressing a wish for a prosperous new beginning. But then, these two aren’t exactly mutually exclusive, are they? I mean, if you can manage to keep those pesky demons away, you’ll probably end up having a prosperous new beginning as a result.

In order to ensure this happens though, a variety of tasks can be performed. One task is to eat a sardine and leave the head outside your doorstep. Hey, demons are mostly sensible creatures, and if they saw a stinking fish head outside someone’s door, they’d assume just as anyone would that the occupants are crazy and leave them well enough alone. However, if eating sardines isn’t quite your bag, there are other options. For instance, you can throw handfuls of baked soy beans, or setsu-beans (that’s a clever name I coined all by myself with no help from anyone else) at those pesky demons while chanting, “oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi,” which roughly translates to “demons out, happiness in.” Once the demons have been sufficiently covered in welts and have hastened their retreat, the next step in the process is to recover the soy beans and eat one for every year of your life. Eating your age in setsu-beans reinforces your fortitude against demons for the coming year and tidies the yard as well. And if neither of these tasks hold any appeal, or if you’ve performed both and are still concerned that you’ve not done enough, then make sure one of your daily meals includes Setsubun-style makizushi. For all intents and purposes, Setsubun-style makizushi is your regular sushi roll but served whole and uncut, very much unlike how typical makizushi is served. So you’ve got your whole and uncut Setsubun-style makizushi roll and you’re ready to go. But hold on! There are a few things to take into consideration before chowing down. One is that you must eat your Setsubun-style makizushi roll in silence. The other is that you must face a specific direction while eating your whole and uncut makizushi roll in silence. The direction you must face changes every year, therefore it pays to do a little research before Setsubun in order to ensure that you face the correct direction while eating your makizushi. Last year the direction was southwest. This year was south-southeast. Next year, who knows? I can’t tell you why the direction changes every year, nor could I find anyone who could educate me in the matter. What I did learn though is that the direction you face while eating your makizushi is determined by the zodiac calendar and furthermore, that direction becomes your good luck direction for the rest of the year, along with all associated benefits (you know, favour of the gods, that sort of thing. Just be sure when you ask kami-sama for fame and fortune you do so while facing the prescribed good luck direction). Plus, I tend to think that facing a different direction every year confuses those demons (not to mention oneself) so that they have no idea what’s going on, thus increasing your demon-repelling ability.

Granted, not all of these customs are followed on Setsubun. I did a survey of some of my students and learnt that none of them ate a sardine and left its head outside their door. Nor were they planning to. In addition, there weren’t a whole lot of students who had eaten their age in setsu-beans, or even bothered to find some demons to throw those beans at beforehand. True, demons have been rather scarce lately, making this particular custom difficult to observe. However, in lieu of those pesky demons, some fathers have gallantly taken up the cause, an act of martyrdom by any definition of the phrase. There are even demon dress-up kits in supermarket check-out lines so Dad can perform his demon persona in convincing fashion, which is quite beneficial for averting any child-hood trauma induced by being made to throw setsu-beans at Dad. After all, if Dad has to do stand-in duties, his children should at the very least not think it’s dear old Pa they’re pelting but rather some repulsive demon. Whether or not this custom is observed, though, resides entirely with Dad’s willingness to have setsu-beans thrown at him once a year. And that willingness quite naturally differs from household to household.

Of the three Setsubun customs, it is the eating of whole and uncut makizushi that is most commonly practiced. It is also the custom of the most dubious origins. I’ve heard one account suggest that the origins of eating makizushi on Setsubun can be traced back to the sushi shops of Osaka, where sushi masters conspired to prop up their industry by ingraining their special Setsubun-style makizushi into the national consciousness in the same way the greeting card industry convinced us that heart-shaped boxes of chocolate are a time-honoured Valentine’s Day tradition. Assuming this account to be true, then the efforts of the Osaka sushi cartel were successful, for whole, uncut makizushi is now as synonymous with Setsubun as those pesky demons.

It wasn’t just my students, though, that neglected select Setsubun customs. This past February 3rd I ate neither my age in setsu-beans, nor Setsubun-style makizushi. I didn’t participate in any of the Setsubun customs at all really, other than eating sardines which were minced up and served like a hamburger patty. And I only ate that because it was served as part of the school lunch (alas, there were no left over heads for me to procure and place outside the staffroom door). Now it wasn’t that I actively chose to ignore Setsubun. It’s just that the opportunity wasn’t there to participate in it, the exception of course being the sardine burger, or setsu-burger (that’s two clever words that I’ve coined now. Please applaud me for my brilliance) I had for lunch, and that doesn’t really count. I certainly would have eaten my Setsubun-style makizushi for dinner, but that was waylaid because I had plans to go out for Sri Lankan cuisine (at the restaurant I did have a whole and uncut Sri Lankan eggroll, but I don’t know how Setsubun purists would feel about that). I can only ponder now what the coming year will bring, having failed to observe the traditions of Setsubun. Will my setsu-burger be enough to ward off the pesky demons? Only time will reveal that answer. Although in a seemingly unrelated coincidence, I have noticed a decline in the number of NHK (the CBC of Japan) fee collectors that have come knocking on my door lately.

Oh, one more thing. Before I close I must express my profuse thanks to Ms. Nagata, who sits beside me in the staff room at Sanwa Junior High School. Her kind explanations and patience in answering my questions were primarily responsible for helping me understand the history and traditions behind Setsubun so I could write this awesome composition.

Setsubun (Derek Armstrong Day)

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