🍚 Ehomaki / Makizushi (Sushi rolls)
On Setsubun (the day that spring begins in the old Japanese calendar, nowadays usually marked between 2 and 4 February), it is customary to face the "lucky direction" for that year, and eat an entire makizushi (sushi roll) whole for good luck. These sushi rolls are referred to as ehomaki. The lucky direction is determined by onmyodo divination ("the way of yin and yang"), and varies depending on the year: in 2022 it was north-northwest, and in 2023 it is south-southeast. It is said that this custom began in Osaka, but its exact origin is uncertain. Various theories hold that it was born from a game in geisha quarters, or was practiced by the merchants of Osaka and Semba when praying for good business. It does not appear to have been a particularly prevalent custom before the end of World War II, but it was advertised from the 1970s as a sales promotion tactic by the seaweed industry. Furthermore, convenience stores and supermarkets started selling ehomaki in the 1990s, and from then on, the practice of eating these sushi rolls on Setsubun spread throughout Japan. Originally there were no particular rules or prescriptions on the kinds of sushi rolls eaten, but in recent years futomaki (thick sushi rolls) using 7 ingredients - to correspond to the Seven Gods of Fortune - have become the norm.