Every February 3rd, families across Japan do something that looks, out of context, like a bizarre indoor food fight: someone puts on a demon mask, and everyone else throws roasted soybeans at them while shouting “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!” — “Demons out! Fortune in!”
This is Setsubun, and despite the theatrical premise, it remains one of the most widely practiced seasonal rituals in Japanese households, schools, and temples. The demons are not really the point. What Setsubun is actually managing is the changeover between seasons — a moment Japan has treated as genuinely vulnerable for well over a thousand years.
What “Setsubun” Actually Means
Setsubun literally means “seasonal division.” Historically, the term referred to the day before any of the four seasonal transitions on the old lunar calendar — the start of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Over time, the name narrowed to refer specifically to the day before Risshun, the first day of spring, which is why Setsubun now falls in early February rather than at every season change.
In the old lunar calendar, the transition into spring was effectively treated as a kind of new year’s eve — a threshold moment when the boundary between the ordinary world and the world of spirits and misfortune was considered thin, and evil influences (oni) were believed to be able to slip through more easily than usual.
Mamemaki: The Bean-Throwing Ritual
The central custom, mamemaki, involves throwing roasted soybeans (never raw ones, which are believed to sprout and cause bad luck) either out the front door or at a family member wearing an oni mask, while chanting the “demons out, fortune in” phrase. The throwing is meant to physically drive misfortune, illness, and bad luck out of the home before the new season begins.
Afterward, many households follow a second custom: eating one soybean for each year of your age, plus one extra for good luck in the year ahead. The beans used are typically fukumame — “fortune beans” — that have first been blessed or ritually purified, often at a local shrine.
Who Plays the Demon
In most households, the role of the oni falls to the father, who puts on a mask specifically so the rest of the family has someone concrete to throw beans at. In kindergartens and elementary schools, staff members frequently take on the role for a class-wide version of the ritual, and Setsubun events are common enough in schools that most Japanese children experience their first mamemaki well before they can explain what an oni actually represents.
Major temples and shrines hold large public Setsubun ceremonies, sometimes featuring celebrities, sumo wrestlers, or public figures throwing beans and small wrapped gifts into large crowds — a considerably bigger-scale version of the same underlying ritual logic.
Ehomaki: Eating in Silence Facing a Direction
A newer but now near-universal Setsubun custom is eating ehomaki — an uncut sushi roll eaten whole while facing that year’s “lucky direction” (determined by the zodiac calendar), in complete silence, making a wish as you finish it.
Cutting the roll before eating it is considered to “cut” the good luck it carries, which is why the whole-roll format matters. Ehomaki’s popularity is a relatively modern phenomenon, driven heavily by convenience store and supermarket marketing beginning in the late 20th century, though the underlying practice draws on older Kansai-region custom. It is a clear example of how a regional tradition can be commercially amplified into a genuinely nationwide one within a few decades.
Why the Ritual Persists
Setsubun survives partly because it costs almost nothing and takes almost no time — a bag of roasted soybeans and five minutes of shouting is a low barrier to keeping a tradition alive year after year. But it also persists because it gives Japanese households a concrete, physical action to perform at exactly the psychological moment when a new season, and by extension a fresh start, feels closest.
That impulse — marking a transition with a deliberate act rather than letting it pass unnoticed — runs through much of the Japanese seasonal calendar, from the elaborate structure of New Year’s to the more understated cycle of seasonal foods and goods described in the concept of shun.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do Japanese people throw beans on Setsubun?
The bean-throwing ritual, mamemaki, is meant to symbolically drive misfortune and evil (represented by an oni, or demon) out of the household before the seasonal transition into spring, while inviting good fortune in.
What is ehomaki?
Ehomaki is an uncut sushi roll eaten whole in silence on Setsubun while facing that year’s lucky direction, with a wish made as the roll is finished. Cutting it beforehand is thought to cut the luck it carries.
Why is Setsubun celebrated in February?
Setsubun originally referred to the day before any seasonal change on the old lunar calendar, but the name narrowed over time to mean specifically the day before Risshun, the first day of spring, which falls around February 3rd.
A Small Ritual With a Big Job
Setsubun asks very little of the people who observe it — a bag of beans, a mask, a few shouted words — and in exchange gives an entire household a shared, slightly silly, genuinely enjoyable way to mark the end of winter.
For a culture that treats seasonal transitions with unusual seriousness, that combination of low effort and real ritual weight may be exactly why Setsubun has outlasted far more elaborate customs.
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