THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
February 3, 2020 at 18:52 JST
NARITA, Chiba Prefecture--Kabuki actor Ichikawa Ebizo, yokozuna Hakuho and other Japanese celebrities were on hand to throw beans during the Setsubun festival at Naritasan Shinshoji temple here on Feb. 3 to pray for a bumper crop and peace.
Ebizo, who is scheduled to succeed the name of Ichikawa Danjuro XIII, wore a “kamishimo” (old samurai costume) adorned with his family crest.
Sumo wrestler Endo, who received the Outstanding Performance Award at the latest tournament, and actors Hiroki Hasegawa, Mugi Kadowaki and Masahiro Motoki, from the Japan Broadcasting Corp.'s (NHK) historical drama “Kirin ga Kuru,” also joined the ceremony.
The bean-throwing event, known as “mamemaki,” is held every year to mark the last day of winter in the lunar calendar.
Bean throwers at many temples ritually shout, “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!” (“Demons out! Good fortune in!”) while showering the crowd with beans.
But at Naritasan Shinshoji temple, people only cry, “Good fortune in!” That’s because it is believed that even demons amend their wicked ways before the god of fire that is enshrined in the temple.
The temple prepared 860 kilograms of soy beans and 400 kg of unshelled peanuts for the bean-scattering ceremony, which was held three times on the day. Each time, 366 amulets were also tossed into the crowd.
At Naritasan Fudoson temple in Neyagawa, Osaka Prefecture, Erika Toda and Yuko Oshima, stars of the NHK morning drama series “Scarlet,” threw beans, along with other famous people.
Every year, people offer prayers on Setsubun to attract good luck and ward off evil and other things such as preventing traffic accidents.
This year, some temple-goers said they prayed to stop the new coronavirus from spreading.
(This article was written by Atsuo Negishi and Yusuke Morishita.)
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Kabuki actor Ichikawa Ebizo, center, tosses beans at a Setsubun festival at Naritasan Shinshoji temple in Narita, Chiba Prefecture, on Feb. 3. (Takuya Tanabe)
