Setsubun Demons and Fire

Here is a video of the red, blue and yellow demons scaring spectators at the Setsubun event "Tsuina-shiki" at Yoshida Jinja on February 2nd. I'd like to second the motion for "Demons Out, Luck in" please!



And, here is another video. This one is of the Fire Invocation at Yoshida Jinja on February 3rd. On the left-hand side of the video, you can see shrine priests throwing bags of good luck charms into the fire at the last minute. Sugoi desu ne!

Setsubun: Bean Throwing Festival

This past weekend, we celebrated Setsubun. It is a festival tied to the Lunar (Chinese) New Year. It is supposed to mark the seasonal division between winter and spring. Although, I'm pretty sure winter is still here.

Many shrines throughout Kyoto and Japan held special events/rituals over the weekend. Most of the Setsubun activities are intended to cleanse evil from the past year, to drive away demons that bring evil and to bring good luck for the new year ahead.

At Yasaka Jinja, a famous shrine in the Gion region, they began their Setsubun rites with Maiko dances. Four colorfully adorned maikos (apprentice geishas) performed a beautiful and very graceful dance with fans.

Afterwards, the maikos joined with the priests of the shrine for mamemaki, or bean scattering. They threw small white packets of dried soybeans into the crowd. Due to my good placement in the crowd and my relative height advantage, I caught two packets! During the bean throwing we were supposed to shout "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" which means "Demons out! Luck in!"

According to one of my students, for those that catch the dried beans, it is customary to eat one soybean for each year in your age. This is part of "bringing the luck in." Another way to start the new year's luck is to buy raffle tickets and see what prizes you win. At Yasaka Jinja, we won a bottle of sake and some tofu soup mix. I'm hoping that the online raffle for Yoshida Jinja goes a little better for us. :)

At Yoshida Jinja, a shrine near Kyoto University, they celebrated Setsubun on both Saturday and Sunday. This was especially exciting because it meant that the nearby streets would be lined with carnival style booths selling foods, games, toys, etc... for the entire weekend. Highlights from these booths include things like tako-yaki (Octopus balls), Sweet Potato sticks (slightly sweet and thick fries), Yakisoba (a delicious noodle dish) and Choco-bananas on sticks!

On Saturday, Yoshida Jinja had an event called Tsuina-shiki. Spectators lined up on both sides of a path through the central area of the shrine. Then, there was a procession with priests, children carrying torches, priestesses, archers and three demons. One demon was red, another was blue and the third one was yellow. Each carried a large weapon and ran down the path pausing to growl and scare children. A few kids were crying, but mostly everyone was having a great time! Then, a priest, dressed as a red-masked God representing luck, comes and "scares" the demons away. Again with the Demons Out, Luck in theme.

On Sunday, there was a "Fire Invocation" called Karosai at 11:00pm. This was simply amazing!

To begin with, there is a giant cylindrical cage nearly 8 meters tall. This cage is filled with all sorts of good luck items. For example, people threw in strips of paper with wishes/good luck messages written on them. Also included were wooden prayer cards accumulated at the shrine over the past year, amulets, good luck charms, small Daruma dolls, rakes with faces of the Luck Gods on them and at least one giant stuffed tiger!

Then, this cage was blessed by a priest and priestess using a paper-covered branch and ceremonial bells respectively. After the blessing, they set the entire thing on fire! As you can imagine the fire was huge, very bright and very warm. Being lucky enough to get a front row spot, I got to warm my toes very effectively! It was really fun.

And... yes Moms, it was safe. Kyoto firemen were there, in fabulous silver uniforms, spraying water on the sparks that ventured too close to neighboring trees.

Rudolph the Brown Nosed Nara Deer

Christmas Eve was a blast! We started the day heading for Nara, a city to the south of Kyoto which was the ancient capital of Japan for a few decades in the 700's.

In addition to its Imperial past, Nara is known for the tame deer that wander freely throughout the city. Eric, Kathy, Chris and I all enjoyed buying some deer cookies and feeding our greedy little friends. :) A few of the bigger deer would even jump or get up on their hind legs to beat the smaller deer to the cookies.

In contrast to the summer of 2005 (the last time I was in Nara) most of the male deer did not have any antlers. I suspect this was due to seasonal antler shedding and it was definitely for the best since the young bucks were especially persistent about devouring the cookies. They licked Kathy's leg, bit our coats and even tried to eat my pocket all in pursuit of the delicious (?) "shika senbei."

After playing with the deer, we visited Kasuga Shrine. This shrine was really neat because the forest paths leading up to it are lined with literally thousands of stone lanterns. Once inside the Shrine's grounds, we found a wisteria arbor (which must be gorgeous in the springtime) and even more lanterns! The lanterns in the shrine were mostly bronze, not stone, but were equally beautiful.

Then, we moved on to the highlight of Nara... Todaiji Temple. This Buddhist temple is known for its GIGANTIC bronze statue of Buddha. I mean it, the statue is huge. For example, on our entrance tickets it said "Virocana Buddha: Height of Body: 48.91 ft, Length of Head 17.75 ft, Length of Eye, 3.34 ft, and Length of Ear, 8.33 ft. I think someone is justifiably proud of their huge national treasure. :)

Relating to this, one of the supporting posts in the Great Buddha Hall has a hole that has been bored through the base which, in theory is the same size as one of the Buddha's nostrils. A long line of visitors (mostly children) were crawling through the hole for luck and enlightenment. I wonder what you get blessed with if you get stuck in the hole?

Ikebana Offering

Shimogamo Shrine had a Thanksgiving (not our US holiday, just a giving of thanks) festival where students of different classic arts like ikebana could "offer" their new skills to the shrine deity in thanks. The students would then receive a gift of "hand-me-downs" from God. In my case, I received Clementine oranges and sweet rice cake triangles. Mmm.

We went on Tuesday evening to create our arrangements. My ikebana sensei had around twenty students participating in the event, including me and Tanaka-san, my landlord's wife. Each student was given a different vase and different flowers to use for their offering.

My arrangement was entirely constructed from different types of chrysanthemums. Tanaka-san's arrangement used a branch of winter sakura (cherry blossom), mums and a tree branch with red leaves. I think all of the arrangements came out very well, ours included. :)

On Wednesday, visitors could come to the shrine and admire the different offerings. In addition to all the flower arrangements, there were samples of traditional Japanese calligraphy, singers and musicians performing music and offerings of fruits and vegetables.