Setsubon

It is Setsubon in Japan now, when Spring is welcomed with bean throwing and chants of ‘Oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi ’.   These are thought to drive away evil and invite good fortune.  

Since playing Guardians of Azuma, I never will see the festival in the same way.


Kai allows the children to throw beans at him freely and shout: ‘Oni out!  Good fortune in!’

He then sees it not as hostility but a message directing him to liberate his people from the darkness of the Underworld.  He resists the negative connotations and refuses to play a role some one else designed for him.  Half Oni, half human, he never truly belongs in either world, but without him, Azuma never would have been saved.


​Celebrations in Japan:


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