In addition to throwing beans at Oni, which enter your house on this day and scare your children (Note: Oni are usually played by the father of the house, or possibly another elder male member of the family.), it has been becoming more of a nationwide tradition over the past ten years or so to eat Ehou-Maki on Setsubun as well. While this tradition seems to have begun under uncertain circumstances around 200 years ago in the Red Light District of Osaka, it doesn’t appear to have become a common practice in the Kansai area until some time in the early twentieth century and has only just begun to become practiced throughout much of Japan recently.

The reason for this, of course, is commercialization. Written records suggest that a sushi association in Osaka first promoted the Ehou-Maki custom in the early 1900s. This appears to have helped spread the custom from the city’s Red Light District to the general public. Later, in the 1970s, a widely televised event featured the Kansai custom and apparently made it known to many people throughout Japan. Lastly, in the 1980s, Family Mart, a Japanese convenient store, started selling and promoting Ehou-Maki throughout Japan. Since then, other convenience stores and supermarkets have also begun selling and promoting Ehou-Maki and now the custom of eating it on or near Setsubun has become fairly well established across much of Japan.