Every year on February 3rd, Japanese households briefly become chaotic. Someone puts on an 鬼, oni mask — a red or blue ogre face, horned and fearsome. And the whole family unites to drive it out.

This is 節分, Setsubun — the seasonal division, the last day of winter by the old Japanese calendar. The next day is 立春, the first day of spring. Before the new season begins, the old one needs to be properly cleared. The oni — bringers of misfortune and illness — must be expelled. Soybeans are the weapon. The family is the army.

鬼は外、福は内

The phrase shouted while throwing the beans is 鬼は外！福は内！— oni wa soto! fuku wa uchi! — oni out, good fortune in. You throw beans toward the door and windows, driving out any oni — and with them, the misfortune and illness they bring. Then you throw beans inward, drawing good fortune in.

At home this usually means one parent, drafted into the role of oni, standing in the doorway while the whole family hurls soybeans with great enthusiasm. The oni is supposed to be frightening. In practice, the mask rarely survives the onslaught with dignity intact. I have fond memories of both sides of this arrangement.

At schools and kindergartens the ritual is larger — teachers or parents dress up, the children form a throwing line, and the volume is considerable. For small children, the moment when the oni bursts in is genuinely frightening for about three seconds before dissolving into chaos and laughter. This is more or less the intended effect.

After the throwing — the eating

Once the oni has been sufficiently pelted and driven out, you eat the beans. The tradition is to eat one bean for each year of your age — and one more, for the year ahead. The beans are 福豆, fuku mame, lucky beans — roasted soybeans with a particular dry, satisfying crunch. They appear in stores and supermarkets in the weeks before Setsubun, often packaged with a small oni mask.

Counting out the right number of beans and eating them one by one is a slightly meditative end to an otherwise noisy evening. By the time you reach your age in beans, winter is officially over.

節分 and 立春

節分 is the eve of 立春 — and the connection matters. The bean-throwing is not arbitrary. It is the ritual clearing that makes space for the new season. You drive out whatever does not belong in spring before spring arrives. The house is louder than usual for about twenty minutes. Then it is quiet, and tomorrow is a new season.

The evening also traditionally involves eating 恵方巻き — a thick, uncut sushi roll eaten in silence while facing the year's lucky direction. That is its own ritual, with its own rules.

 Read about 恵方巻き here →