Setsubun Festival 2010 - Taiko, Gagaku, Shrine Maidens Galore!

This is the Setsubun Festival at Fujinomori Shrine in Kyoto, Japan. It occurs the day before the first day of Spring (February 3, 2010).

There are rituals to cleanse the past year's evil and drive away evil spirits (demons = "oni"). People throw beans ("mamemaki") to drive off those demons and purify the area. They often yell "oni wa soto" or "demons out".

This video shows:
1. Miko (shrine maidens) throwing beans at the oni to drive them away.
2. Taiko - a troup playing traditional japanese drums.
3. Gagaku - traditional japanese lute music.
4. Miko Kagura - the shrine maidens dance while the gagaku music continues.
5. Amazake - those giant vats in the photo are brewing up amazake which is a sweet ginger sake.
6. Bonfire - the sacred fire is lit to see which direction the smoke and embers rise. If they rise straight up, the coming year will be lucky.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• setsubun
• festival
• japan
• miko
• shrine
• maiden
• dance
• demon
• oni
• fire
• bean
• amazake
• kagura
• gagaku
• sacred
• shinto
• fujinomori
• taiko
• drum
• drums
• traditional
• japanese
• lute
• music
• mamemaki
• 2010
• vacation
• classical

[TheDancingHeretic]

Taiko drumming is badass.