Makizushi – The Astral Sushi

I am sure that everybody who leaves for at least one or two years in Japan knows everything about setsubun‘s Mamemaki (soya bean – throwing):

and the oni (demon) masks:

One of the reason for this is that you can see both mamemaki beans and the demon masks of Setsubun for at least one month before the Setsubun itself. There is another things though which you can see only for very short time and to be more precise only during the evening of Setsubun. This is the makizushi or also known as Eho-Maki (恵方巻) (恵 – blessed,  方- direction,  巻- roll) a special kind of sushi. You can find them during the Setsubun afternoon/evening(February, 3th) in every supermarket loudly promoted bu the shop assistants.

Eho-Maki is a long, big and quite tasty sushi:

The most important think for this sushi though is neither its size neither the fact that it is so tasty but the direction in which you must eat it (this is already allured in its name – the blessed direction roll). Every year this direction changes and it depends on the animal of the year according to the Chinese calendar (or more precisely the position of the animal’s constellation in the sky). For example now we are in the year of the tiger (tora (虎)- in Japanese). It follows that the blessed direction is west-southwest (or 西南西 – in Japanese). In case you do not remember the correct orientation for certain animal/year – it is enough to have a look on the package of the makizushi:

As you can see in the lower right corner you have a picture of compass which shows you the correct direction (notice the three kanji above it – 西 -west, 南-south, 西-west).

The only thing left to do is to take a real compass, to determine the blessed orientation and to enjoy the sushi