8 best temples and shrines to celebrate Setsubun in Tokyo

If you want to trace the origins of all this legume-throwing, this is where to start: Sensoji was the first place in Japan to hold a large-scale Setsubun ceremony, bringing mass-market appeal to a ritual that had been practised since the Heian era. Around 10,000 people turn up each year to watch celebrities lob handfuls of soybeans from morning to afternoon.

Beans are usually thrown to cleanse the evil spirits away, but since there are no demons within the temple grounds, people chant to invite good fortune instead. In addition, there will also be a ‘Dance of the Seven Lucky Gods’ called Fukuju-no-mai, plus bean-throwing by Asakusa entertainers to welcome visitors.

Zojoji's bean-throwing festival sees a colourful bunch of celebrities born in the ongoing year of the Chinese zodiac fling soy beans over the assembled masses. Participate in bean-throwing festivities, and ensure good health and fortune for the year by picking up a new omamori charm at the temple stalls. 

Priests in traditional dress emerge from the shrine's ceremonial hall in the afternoon, followed by a bunch of bean-throwers all born in previous Years of the Dragon (the Chinese zodiac animal for 2024). Finally, the red-and blue-faced demons charge onto the scene. 

Seeing around 10,000 visitors for Setsubun every year, Honmonji is famed for welcoming athletes (from pro wrestlers to golfers) to take care of the bean-throwing. Things get underway at 1pm when a group of ‘lucky men’ and ‘lucky women’ parade around the neighbourhood, followed by a prayer service at 2pm. The actual bean-throwing ceremony doesn't start until 3pm.

Hie Shrine's ceremony is always a popular one, with festivities starting at 11.30am. Following the opening ritual, the bean-throwing will start around noon. Expect the grounds to be busy as this is the first time the event has returned in four years.

Although the actual bean-throwing at Yoyogi's main shrine is nothing out of the ordinary, the mochi-bashing on February 1, put on by the Yoyogi Mochitsuki Preservation Society, makes this one worth a look. Setsubun festivities on February 3 start at 3pm and you can participate in bean-throwing from 3.30pm.

Another Setsubun event where the beans are usually of secondary importance, Nakano temple Hosenji's ceremony is best known for the 'fighting monk' parade, ​​in which 100 men dress up as feudal-era sohei warrior monks. The parade starts from 3.30pm followed by bean-throwing festivities on at 4.30pm.