Setsubun

Friday (the 3rd) was Setsubun. In simple terms, Setsubun is a bean-throwing ceremony/festival performed on the day before the first day of Spring. As an aside, this means that we are now officially in Spring, something which I'm not buying. At any rate, Setsubun involves bean throwing, both out doors and at people to chase away the evil spirits. Our host father every year organizes for the AETs to take part in the Setsubun ceremony at one of the local shrines.

When we left our apartment for the shrine, a bit before six, it was about 7 degrees in our apartment. That would put the outside temperature at only a few degrees above zero. Despite this, all the priests taking part in the ceremony took part in a ritual cleansing outside, wearing almost nothing. The cleansing process probably took about 10 minutes, with chanting, repeated washing, and more chanting.

After we had finished watching the washing, it was time to dress up,

Only Jess's pants were the right size

and then we followed the priests into the shrine for the main ceremony. During the ceremony, we sat directly behind the priests. I felt conspicuously on display, and tried to keep a reasonable posture, not fidget, and keep looking towards the front. I slipped up a few times.

The ceremony itself was great. I had no idea what was going on, but for the most part, I just relaxed and enjoyed the sound of the chanting and intoning, making no effort to understand. The changing combined with rhythmic drumming and the odd gong was strangely beautiful. However, I admit that due to the length of the ceremony, my mind tended to wander a bit, and I also thought about this:

although it seems that I was the only person to do so.

Towards the end, the chief priest tapped each of us on the head, each shoulder, and on the back with a special implement that I have no idea what to call. I assume this was meant to banish the symbolic demons we had on our arms.

Then came the highlight, as we were each handed a box of beans to throw at the audience.

After all the official business was finished, I was assured that it was fine for me to photograph the shrine. I hadn't previously had the opportunity to get up close to a fancy shrine before, they're usually closed off to the public, or no photographs allowed, so I may have run a little wild with the camera for a while.