Demons Out! —鬼は外！—

“What did you do at nursery today?” asked my mother, during our weekly Skype call. 

Her grandson, my six year old, replied, “A demon came to our nursery today, Grandma.” 

I explained to my mother that during the Japanese festival of Setsubun, people throw beans to ward off demons, shouting, “Demons out, good fortune in!” 

“Why did the demon come to your nursery?” my mother asked. 

“To punish the bad kids,” said my son. 

“Goodness!” said my mother.  “In Scotland, Santa Claus sometimes visits nursery schools, not demons!” 

She found it quite hard to understand why a nursery school would want to frighten their children by sending in teachers wearing genuinely scary and grotesque demon masks.  It has always seemed a little strange to me as well.  It certainly highlights a different emphasis between modern Scottish schools and a traditional Japanese education.  One says that bad children will not get the presents they want at Christmas.  The other says that bad children will be dragged off to hell and thrown into an iron pot, to be stirred by merciless demons… Well, unless the kids have got some beans. 

“Why are demons weak against beans, Daddy,” my son asked. 

Good question.  I didn’t know how to answer him.  Is it only beans that work?  If you were to hit a demon with a baseball bat instead of beans, would that also be effective? 

The teachers said that my son was particularly scared of the demon which came to his nursery, and was extremely reluctant to approach it.  When it came close to him, he threw his beans at it and then ran away. 

“That was very clever of you,” I told him.  “Sun Tzu advises that when fighting a stronger enemy, you should avoid direct confrontation, but instead use hit and run tactics.” 

A nursery school aged child, armed only with beans, should proceed cautiously in a battle with a demon.  Now that Setsubun has passed, the little heroes can lay down their beans and rest for another year.

Vocabulary:

to ward something off – to prevent something from harming you or negatively affecting you (eg. “Nobita raised his hands to ward off Gian’s punches.”)

Sun Tzu – an ancient and famous Chinese general.  In Japanese, he is called Sonshi