Kimono Flea Market ICHIROYA's News Letter No.633
In February, there is Setsubun--(usually it is around February 3rd, accroding to the old lunar calendar), which is the day before the beginning of spring. It is a fun tradition. We do mame-maki(scatter beans) and eat the beans and also makzushi(sushi-roll).
When we do mame - maki, we say `Fukuwa uchi(Come on happiness), Oniwa soto(Go away, devils), throwing and scattering soy beans inside and outside.
We eat beans - one for each year of one's life. It used to be fun but at my age, eating so many beans is like a torture, I do not try any more.
Another fun tradition is eating sushi roll - around Setsubun, sushi roll called Eho maki are sold. Eho means good drection. Eating Eho-maki or other sushi roll (without cutting) while facing the auspicious direction. You are not supposed to speak until you eat up the roll. Imagine people eating sushi silently facing the same direction- it is quite surreal and weird.....
It is a quite NEW tradition, when I was a child, there was nothing like this weird thing. I heard it is a plot by nori(seaweed)sellers. You know, sushi rolls are covered by nori, seaweed laver. They started the speed eating event of sushi roll some decades ago and their conspiracy was so successful. It started from Kansai (Western Japan) area and people liked that. It is unbelievable but Seven-Eleven(famous convenience store chain) spread this to all over Japan. So eating sushi roll on Setsubun won the seat of new tradition!
You know, Japanese are so supersticious and love the event like this!
I do not like this origin from those companies but it is a fun event after all.
Recently I made sushi roll-- (my aunt was really good at cooking sushi roll and she used to give us a lot of sushi rolls, so I did not have to cook). I never thought it is such a fun! Actually, I was so looking forward to Setsubun- I am into making sushi roll now. Just as pasta dish, you can try variety of ingriedients.
My favorite is adding tamagoyaki(egg roll), lettuce, kanikam(surimi crab), canned tuna and cucumber all together! Just a little bit of mayonnaise makes the roll so good! Unakyu(eel and cucumber) is evertyone's favorite and so tasty.
Please try googling with key words `deco sushi'. You can find so many interesting images- Disney characters, animals, Minions....all kinds of KAWAII characters appear as sushi roll. You will find many people are into making sushi roll. If you like to try, Cookpad will be very good! dozo tanoshinde kudasai, Have fun!
