Yoshida Shrine Setsubun Festival 2027 (Kyoto)

Kyoto's major Setsubun festival, held since the Muromachi period and drawing around 500,000 visitors a year. On the eve of Setsubun, the Tsuina-shiki rite sees Hososhi, a figure in a golden four-eyed mask, circle the dance stage and drive away the demons of disease. On Setsubun itself, old talismans are burned in a huge fire pit in front of the shrine at the Karosai fire ritual. About 800 food stalls open on February 2 and 3, and special good-luck charms and lottery bean packs are only offered during the festival.

Setsubun is the day before the first day of spring in the old calendar, long seen as the moment to drive out misfortune before the new season begins. At home, people throw roasted soybeans while calling "Oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi" (demons out, good fortune in), then eat one bean for each year of their age. Yoshida Shrine's Tsuina-shiki keeps alive a demon-expelling rite performed at the imperial court from the early Heian period: Hososhi strikes his shield and leads the chase around the stage, and courtiers finish the demons off with reed arrows shot from peach-wood bows. During the festival you can also pray at the Yakuzuka, a mound believed to take on visitors' misfortune.