"Gruuuuu!!! I am Monster!!"
This is my daughter.
"Setsubun" is the third of Februray in Japan.
"Setsubun" is the day means to devide the seasons. According to to the calendar,
the spring will come from the next day of "Setsubun".
The people thought that the bad spirit ( we call "Jyaki") can easily come into daily life
at the time seasons start to chenges from long time ago.
That's why special event which is exorcise bad spirit still going on.
"Jyaki" is about illness, disaster and starvation and so on.
Ancient people were afraid of them a lots.
And then, people made a "Oni" as a symbol of those bad things.
I think "Oni" is quite interesting existance.
It's perfectly evil!
At any rate he is bad guy.
Appearance is also make us very frightened.
....like this illustration?
I took a long time to find out suitable picture.
Their skin's color is red or blue, has a bull's horn on their head and
wears tiger's tusk and fur.
He holds a iron's bar, rowdy monster! 
・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・
Wander from the subject of "Setsubun".
Oni appear at many Japanese events.
Not always "Setsubun".
Oni is always villain.
The person will be a hero who exterminated Oni.
However, we have rare story it like,
" To tell the truth, Oni is faint-hearted, unexpectedly good guy
and in the end Oni feel regret and said so sorry to the people."
Because of people might be felt Oni is too poor to killed by hero
everytime.
Therefore, you can see this different kind of images with Oni.
↓Hurray!
Oh yes, Do you know the heroine of "Urusei-yatsura" ( this is Japanese comic.)
who is quite popular among the world.
Her name is "Ramu-cyan".
She should be also Oni.
Her father is Oni. His appearance is classic style's image of Oni.
・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・
Now back to the "Setsubun" story.
I wrote before that we will do event which exorcise bad spirit on the third of februray.
The event called "Mamemaki" (scatter parched beans.)
We scatter parched soybeans which believes has a special power from long time ago.
Why parched beans?
Because of prevent from beans grow up after scattered.
Exactly like this phot.
We put beans into square box made by wood.
We call "Masu" about this box. We scatter beans toward to "Oni".
We believe that Oni will come up after get dark.
So, "Mamemaki" should be at night time usually.
We shout "Oni is out! Luck stays inside!"
At first, from inside of house to the outside,we scatter shower of beans.
And then from the inner room to the entrance, we scatter a little beans
again and again. Forced out Oni to outside.
According to the first pidture of this article, It's ok whether somebody wears Oni mask with
playing role of Oni or not.
In a word, important thig is "Spirit".
"Mamemaki" is typical event at kindergarden in this season.
Neighbor wears Oni mask, and visit my daughter's kindergarden.
Children will scatter beans to Oni.
However, my daughter planing to absent from that day with pretend to be ill.
Becase of the player make frightened children in really.
"Gruuuuu!! I am Oni~~!!"
Suddenly tiny Oni coming up!
She is fine if tiny Oni like her will come up
to kindergarden.
Very frightening mask :D Funny, bad characters used to have red faces and bull horns.
Hi Miko san! Obviously, about 'skating-swimmers'(tanoshiii!); the subject was not Miko sensei, but the clumsy skaters!!! Sorry to use UK. blog, but it looks a so quiet place!? Oni 怖い人? Matane.
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