Osaka

A traditional food to eat on Setsubun in Kansai to prey for happiness in the coming year.

Ehoumaki

The origin of Ehomaki is unknown and there are several different stores of it, however it is said that the custom of eating it started from the merchants' families in Semba, Osaka Prefecture to prey for prosperity in business, safety and happiness of the family in the coming year. The uniqueness of Ehomaki is the way of eating it - looking at the direction of Eho (the god of happiness) of the year, eating the whole Ehomaki all at once without stopping to prey and uttering a word so you will not cut off a good fortune and happiness from you. The direction of Eho of the year is decided by Yin Yang and changes every year like south-southeast in 2013, east-northeast in 2014, and west-southwest in 2015. There was no particular way of making Ehomaki in the old days, however, using 7 different kinds of ingredients representing seven gods of happiness has been a recent fashion.