Setsubun
Next: February 3, 2027
Demons out, good luck in.
The story
Where it comes from
Setsubun is held on the day before Risshun, the traditional start of spring, to drive out bad luck and welcome a good year. Because Risshun is set each year by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan from the sun's position, Setsubun usually falls on 3 February but sometimes on 2 February, as it did in 2025. Its best-known custom, mamemaki or bean-throwing, appears in records from the Muromachi period, about 600 years ago, and spread widely in the Edo period, when popular kabuki actors threw beans at public events.
How it's celebrated
At home, families throw roasted soybeans at a family member wearing an oni (demon) mask, chanting 'Oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi', 'Demons out, good luck in'. Many then eat one bean for each year of their age, or one extra, for good health. Temples and shrines hold big bean-throwing events, and people eat ehōmaki, a whole uncut sushi roll, in silence while facing the year's lucky direction and making a wish.
Did you know
- At Naritasan Shinshōji near Narita Airport, celebrities and sumo wrestlers throw the beans, and the chant leaves out 'demons out', because the temple's deity is so merciful that even oni repent.
- The beans are roasted, not raw, so that they cannot sprout; some regions throw peanuts instead.
- The ehōmaki custom is said to have started in Osaka, and it has spread across Japan in recent years.
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