鬼（おに）／節分（せつぶん）
14 02 2009
February 3rd is 節分– setsubun in Japan. On setsubun, people eat roasted soy beas wishing for good health for the coming year. They also throw roasted soy beans at 鬼- oni. Oni is roughly translated as a demon or ogre. On setsubun, a family member (usually a male) wears an Oni mask or costume. The rest of the family throws roasted soybeans at the oni saying “鬼は外 福は内- oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi” (ogre out, good luck in) driving the ogre
away. Shrines and temples also hold mamemaki (throwing beans) events throughout Japan.
You can read more about Setsubun and here and here. You can also see some setsubun videos below.
Oni are common characters in Japanese folklore, children stories, plays, anime, etc. Oni also can mean “it” in games like tag , and Japanese children play many tag variants called oni gokko. There are several common phrases and sayings that refer to “oni” as well. See some examples below.
• 桃太郎-Momoraro
Momotro is one of the most popular Japanese folk tales. In the story, the protagonist, Momotaro (”Peach Boy”) fights with evil oni, who live on Onigashima (oni island) and terrorize the mainland.
Momotaro in Anime.
• 一寸法師—Issun boshi
Another famous folk tale. Issun boushi fights with an oni who has kidnapped a princess.
Watch IssunBoshi in Anime.
• Expressions
The word oni is often used to describe someone who is evil, strict, and/or not merciful. Here are some common expressions:
鬼軍曹-onigunsou： drill sergeant
鬼課長 –onikacho： unsympathetic, demanding section manager
鬼嫁 –oniyome： evil, wicked and／or self-centered daughter in law.
• Proverbs
鬼に金棒 - Oni ni kanabo: Oni with club
This proverb is used to describe, something or someone that is already strong, but becomes even more stronger, with additional skills, strength, tools, etc.
鬼の目にも涙。- Oni no me ni mo namida: Even an oni’s eyes can have tears.
This literally means, even an oni can cry. It is used to describe the soft side of a cold hearted/evil person.
You can see more oni related proverbs and expressions in Alc dictionary and this personal blog page.
Additional reading /resources.
Some argue that the image of oni has often been associated with Westerners and foreigners. During World War II, Japanese propaganda called enemy troops, 鬼畜米兵（kichiku beihei), literally meaning “evil, barbarian American soldiers”．You can read more about this war propaganda, in the following articles.
• War and Propaganda: A Japanese Narrative By Donald Richie June 15, 2008. Japan Times
Hi guys!! I took part in this event one week ago at the entrance of my dorm. It was fun! We had one of our course mates disguised as Oni and we ended up throwing beans at him (which is not good). XD
We also ate as many pieces of beans as our age to wish for our good health. However, I ate more than I should because the beans taste good. I hope my health will not be affected by that!
I will try to leave some comments here too whenever I am free. I hope Sazawa sensei won’t mind! 皆さん、頑張ってください！！
In high school, my Japanese teacher would celebrate Setsubun on February third. Instead of attending class like usual, we would go outside and throw beans at each other for an hour, some of us with oni masks. It could be more accurately described as everyone throwing beans for the first minute, and then eating beans and not being in class for the remaining fifty-nine minutes. In the week before, she’d have us watch various iterations of “Momoraro”, just to make sure we were prepared for what we were getting into. Perhaps this is why I liked Japanese so much more than any other class.
I love Setsubun. 「節分がクリスマスよりいいだと思います」。
Setsubun reminds me of throwing salt over a shoulder, crossing your fingers helps to avoid bad luck and helps a wish come true, garlic protects from evil spirits and vampires, or you can break a bad luck spell by turning seven times in a clockwise circle. Early Christians believed that evil spirits or demons often entered humans. They believed that mental illness and sicknesses were caused by possession by evil spirits. Those were several ways of getting rid of the demons or bad luck. On the night of Setsubun, some Japanese will still decorate a holy tree in front of their home with a head of a sardine, a clove of garlic, or an onion. These items were also designed to keep the demons away. Beans, seeds, rice rolled in seaweed, fruit are also used to ward off coming evil and insure future efficiency. The objects are believed, if eaten, will assure strength and cleansing.
Here’s a funny link to the “Cruel Japanese Tradition” of hurting the oni
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGUhMqWbbS4
I have seen a lot of different references to Oni in various anime and other Japanese media. I always thought it meant demon though.
I think the only thing similar to setsubun here in the U.S. would be our New Years Celebration and eating black eyed peas for good luck. I hope I will get the chance to take part in setsubun when I go to KGU next year though.
Reading all this, I keep trying to find something within my culture to compare with setsubun – the closest I’ve come up with is Halloween, but I don’t think it has the same cultural significance. It probably once did – I did some research and found that Halloween celebrations a long time ago follow some of the same general traditions as setsubun – the roleplaying as evil spirits and good luck ceremonies in particular. It seems to me that the United States doesn’t have quite the respect for superstition or supernatural things as does Japan – here, people who are really into the occult or superstition are pretty much dismissed, but in most of the Japanese media I’ve seen, the same types of things are treated with greater seriousness – and I wonder if that’s the cause of the divergence between setsubun and Halloween.
I didn’t, however, find any kind of mainstream spirits or anything to compare with the Japanese oni. Like I said above, I just don’t think we treat superstition seriously enough in the United States for something like that to become as much of a colloquialism as it is in Japan. I mean, we too have proverbs and sayings based on superstitious or supernatural things, and ghost stories or other supernatural stories are quite common, but they’re really not part of our culture.
It just occurred to me that this might be because of a difference in the way we think of history and our ancestry – it seems that here in America we live very much in the now, but family ancestry and legend seem to hold much more significance in Asia. General history also is kind of ignored here in contrast to the rest of the world – we tear down our old buildings while other places repurpose them. I wonder if we don’t subscribe to ghost stories because we prefer to destroy our ghosts?
Each year Japanese celebrate the tradition of Setsubun. As wikipedia said, it is the celebration of the new seasons and takes part in the Spring Festival. This ritual shows the belief in spirits and how past history plays a part in their culture. The throwing of the beans to an oni symbolizes clearing the past and bringing new luck into the home. It was interesting to watch the video of the little kids throwing the beans. They seemed to be having a lot of fun. Anime videos also allowed kids to learn and see traditional stories involving fighting against the bad spirited oni. Another video showed what looked like mascots and celebrities making appearances at temples to throw beans.
The only comparison that I could think of would be our version of New Year’s Eve. Everyone gets together and celebrates the beginning of the New Year. We make resolutions to have a better year than the last. It is a big gathering where everyone comes together and celebrities participate on tv shows for the event. Instead of beans we have confetti and age permitting you can drink Champagne.
Oni can be used in other situations as well. People who are demanding or mean are sometimes called oni. Also I found it interesting that oni was included in proverbs. As well as being a tradition it is also used to teach meanings and lessons . It is thought provoking to think that these traditions can represent propaganda. If you think about it, the lessons we are taught as children influence the way we analyze subjects. In WWII Japanese called foreigners Oni because they were fighting them and saw them as evil. They influenced their people to think a certain way for fighting a war. Propaganda can be used to influence people on a wide variety of issues. Are the traditions that we are celebrating slightly influenced still by the propaganda of the original time of the event?
Setsubun looks like a fun tradition to me. I wish that there was a holiday in the U.S. where I could throw beans at someone. I think that cultural traditions are really interesting.
I thought it was ironic that Yik commented saying that she enjoyed the beans because I found them to be not very tasty. Still, I guess they weren’t too bad to munch on. And I also didn’t eat the same number as my age, so we’re in the same boat.
I found it interesting how demons are integrated into Japanese culture and tradition. While demons are present in American tradition, they don’t seem to hold the same position and have the same nuance as in Japan. For example, I think the strong religious tendencies of Americans give demons a very ominous connotation even today, while in Japan they seem to be more of a superstition and tradition. This is understandable, though, as Japanese people have religious tendencies based more on harmony and less on fear than in America.
After watching the videos of the folk tales, I noticed more of the slightly different nuance of “demons” in Japan and the US. Even though the demons in both clips couldn’t be too scary because the cartoons were meant for young children, the Japanese demons were just portrayed as mean and a little dull. Demons in American culture, as I mentioned earlier, are not the same at all. And if you take the “ogre” definition of Oni, then I can say with a good amount of confidence that ogres are lacking from American folk tales completely. (Unless you count Shrek, which you shouldn’t.) Actually, now that I think of it, the only American folk take I can come up with is the ones about the railroad and Johnny Appleseed. Maybe someone can help me out here?
The setsubun tradition itself is very appealing to me. I like the idea of traditions, especially one like setsubun which is done more or less just to keep tradition going and have fun. The family in the video seemed to be having a lot of fun throwing the mame at the dad. Japan’s long history gives it many unique traditions like this.
I was also interested in how the Japanese used the idea of demons during times of war. I think that this is very similar in all countries, though. As the articles explained, dehumanizing the enemy is a common tactic. In a class on East Asian history, I read many similar articles about how both Japanese and US soldiers were encouraged to think of the enemy as “less than human” in order to motivate them to kill. It’s sad, but during WWII, it worked for both sides (and still works today, it is just not being used in Japan or the US).
I don’t think there is anything we do in America that can compare to Setsubun. I agree that the closest would be eating black-eyed pea dip on New Years. I think this might be because many Americans don’t like the idea of luck or fate. We like to think that everything that happens happens because of the choices that you make in life. If you make the right choices then you’ll lead a good life. Luck suggests a lack of control over our lives, which despite being a country founded on religion, is another thing Americans don’t like to think about. We don’t like to think that certain things are out of our hands. I think the Japanese are very passive people. Because they believe in luck and fate, when something bad happens, they accept it as being out of their control and move on. They recognize that while they work hard and make good choices, there are certain things that can happen that no one can foresee. This is probably the also the reason why charms are so popular there.
Yik San, We miss you already. Where have you been? (Japan, duh!)
To Eric and Yik, I thought it was ironic that Erica found the beans not very tasty. I found it very good and I ate more than one, although not even close to my age. Don’t worry Yik san, I don’t think eating more than your age would affect your health because beans are good for you.
Having said that, why do people associate mame with good luck? Why do they have to throw mame. Why don’t they throw rocks or green beans. Are the beans more pure than other types of object? I would really love the hear about the origin of mame throwing because it interests me.
And to tie it up to Emily’s comment, I think setsubun relates more closely to salt throwing, although not for the same reason. Hope told me that when I spill salt, I have to throw salt to my back. It’s something about the devil’s eyes. I did it, and once I threw it at Eric because he’s undeniably very evil. Therefore, I think they are more similar just because there is a “throwing” part, and the there’s the “devil” part.
So it brings me to Eric’s point of how the Japanese portray demons. They did certainly demonized the Allied armies during WWII because that sort of justified the killing as well as encouraging it. Not that the allied powers did not do the same, they dehumanized the Japanese during the war, portraying them merely of subhuman species. Thus, there is something about Oni and the Japanese, a relationship that makes the Oni so prominent in the Japanese way of life. Not just in usual cultural practices, Oni appear in Japanese art, literature, and theatre. They represent an evil force that penetrate into a good and noble Japanese life. Do they mislead people – luring people into doing bad things? Or do they just cause disasters, bad lucks, and devastation? What do I mean when I ask this question? Well, in American movies, sometimes you can see little angel and demon sitting on the opposite side of a person’s shoulders. The demon would talk a person into doing something bad, while an angel would try to persuade a person to not believe, or give up, to a devil force. Do the Japanese oni do any of these things? In other words, what are the roles of the oni in Japanese culture, do they just scare people of and cause them destruction?
Thinking about oni, I’m reminded of how in Japan and other East Asian cultures, “demons” aren’t necessarily malevolent or can be beneficial in some way. I can think of the obariyon off the top of my head, which turns into money if taken home. This is quite a bit different from the mainstream Judeo-Christian cultures, where all supernatural beings aside from one specific faction are considered evil.
In addition to this, there’s a difference in the demonic relationship with people. In Judeo-Christian dualism, the one faction has nothing but the best of intentions, while the vast majority of evil demons seem to have little to no other purpose than harming mankind, if for no other reason than “the lulz.” Meanwhile, I guess I could describe the Japanese relationship with their enormous list of demons as “less anthropocentric,” since those demons seem to have been living their own lives before the random peasant happened along and caused them to react.
Personally, I prefer this mode of thinking for the same reason that I believe our planet isn’t the only one to harbor life: because I don’t think we’re that important in the grand scheme of things. It just makes more sense to me that these strange and powerful being have better things to do than waiting for one of us to come along so it can screw our lives up.
First of all, I thought the cartoons were cute. They reminded me of cartoons I watched when I was younger. I don’t like the style of modern American cartoons. While shows like Spongebob are entertaining, they don’t really catch my attention much. It’s like all the folk stories, tradition, and lessons have disappeared from newer cartoons. I was also proud of myself for being able to catch words and phrases that I knew, making easier to follow along.
Secondly, as many have said, the tradition of eating soy beans on setsubun is similar to that of black eyed peas on New Year’s eve. However, something that came to my mind was the tradition of spanking on a person’s birthday. I don’t know how many families actually do this, but when my brothers and I were younger, one of our parents would spank us (not hard) on our birthdays. One for every year we had been alive, and one for good luck. The most obvious reason for this (in my opinion) is because of the fact that when a baby is born, the doctor usually gives him/her a little smack on the bottom.
I remember one of my old history teachers talking about Japanese Propaganda in WWII. This makes a lot of sense because, for the most part, it gets difficult for the government to keep the people’s trust when engaging in war when the citizens are extremely against it (as we are currently seeing in Iraq). It makes things much easier when the people view the enemy as an evil demon as they will offer more support and thus raise morale of troops. Plus, it is easier for troops to kill enemy soldiers quickly when they think of them as such. Imagine if they thought of the enemy as people just like them; it would probably cause a lapse in judgement and hesitation when on the battle field, which is never a good thing (at least not for the side that is hesitating).
I had never heard of eating black eyed peas on new years before reading this blog…Hmm I wonder why I have never heard of this “tradition”.
Anyway, I really think that the idea of an Oni is an interesting tradition to have. I really enjoyed watching the video clips as well. I think I like the fact that they are similar to many American folk tales we have. Both stories were about small people (children) who were able to overcome an Oni even though the odds were against them. This really reminded me of the Jack and the Beanstalk story we all heard growing up; a normal peasant boy finds magical beans that allow him to climb the giant beanstalk and defeat a giant that has been terrorizing his village.
I love how the word “Oni” is also used in combination with other words to describe people. We use words like “devilish” but that is not the same. Can anyone think of an English equivalent where we use words like
鬼軍曹-onigunsou： drill sergeant
鬼課長 –onikacho： unsympathetic, demanding section manager
鬼嫁 –oniyome： evil, wicked and／or self-centered daughter in law
The fact that this creature is being used to help shape the Japanese language is just fascinating to me.
I remember hearing the IssunBoshi story when I was younger, and I always wanted to learn more about it. Thank you for posting this video!