Anyway, yesterday was Setsubun, the beginning of spring season. It's kind of a New Year's eve like celebration, as part of it is about getting rid of all evils of the past year. Which interestingly enough happens by throwing beans at the demons... and also by burning the old amulets of the past year at the shrines they were bought from.
I visited two shrines yesterday, first Kitano Tenmangu, which is dedicated to Tenjin-sama (Heian age poet and courtier Sugawara no Michizane, who after an unhappy fate became the kami of scholarship and learning). This is an gorgeous place, but I'll probably write more about it later this month, when the Ume Matsuri takes place there. There are about 2000 plum trees there, as Michizane apparently loved them. In fact, they were just about to start blooming now:
There was a kyogen-like performance at the shrine, with both the demon and the kami appearing, and ending with the bean throwing. I arrived there a little late, just a few minutes before the beginning, so I couldn't get too close to the stage. Here's a vid of the end of it. Unfortunately I ended up cutting this video off right before the final "oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi" part (the demon outside, good luck inside)... but anyway, there's the oni, with the sword, facing the god. Right when I stopped filming they started throwing beans at the demon, and also at the audience.
Next, there were geisha dances:
Happened to spot them when they were leaving from the place...
At the end, they were throwing little bags of the beans for the audience. I was too far to catch any, though one did hit my ear at one point. xD (Personally I think that those who got them could have left and given others a chance too, but whatever. They did throw an awful lot of those things, I bet some got many...)
Then I headed to see what was going on at Yoshida shrine, near the university.
I knew from the day before there'd be an awful lot of food stands etc, and that they were also building the bonfire of the old amulets. I had been there the day before and spotted quite many tasty things. Also some demons...
From Friday:
They evolved somewhat overnight to something fancier and kinder that's actually giving blessings:
(Heh... once again a shaky end at the video.)
I also happened to be there just at the right time for this... I don't well know what it is all about, but for a few thousand yen you could take part in a special ceremony where you got two boxes of something (don't know what, didn't take part) and an arrow. These were being performed pretty much continuously for small groups of people. But then there came quite a special group (possibly actors of something that had been performed before?) who got an extra special ceremony, with a sword dance:
As it turned out the bonfire wouldn't be lit before 10 pm, I went to see some other places as I had time... not that there was much to see, really. Though very many girls in nice kimonos everywhere.
Also, got my first ever won at a crane game! xD
Btw, all this going back and forth (I'd also went home to the dorm at one point, and biked to Kitano Tenmangu twice from there) resulted in whopping 35 km of biking yesterday. O_o
Anyways, returned to Yoshida shrine later in the evening for the bonfire burning.
It was a long wait, but finally came the burning of the bonfire they had been building since Friday. (I'd been told it'd be burned at 10 pm, but it was closer to 10:45.)
It was quite a bonfire. It was downright scary at times. I was quite happy I wasn't as close as the people in the pic above. In fact, I would have been, on the other side, but they didn't let anyone stay there. So I ended up at its backside, and couldn't really follow all proceedings... but at least now I was in the front row. A bunch of videos of the process:
At this point it was becoming really hot. And yeah, a bit scary. The girls next to me stopped complaining about having to move so far from it. xD
One funny thing! They were selling these transparent balloons with led lights attached to them, and in the end, I couldn't resist those. (I was fine until it got dark, and they became so pretty......) The funny part is that apparently there just was an article in a newspaper home in Finland that mentioned these things. Maybe they're going to be hot stuff in Finland soon. xD I'm for once ahead of my time, top trendy! xD
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