Extraordinary ehoumaki rice rolls 2017

Feb 3rd is a setsubun day.
Setsubun is a popular Japanese culture. Let me cite Wikipedia for detailed explanation about setsubun.

As you can see, setsubun is usually a bean scattering event. But there is one more unique custom about setsubun now.

That is "eating ehoumaki rice roll event".
This event is simple but bizarre. All you have to do is prepare a thick rice roll called ehoumaki (lucky direction roll) and eat it while facing the direction considered to be auspicious that year.

It is said that the birthplace of ehoumaki roll event is current Osaka prefecture. This event is said to started at the end of Edo era.
At that time, Tokyo was a city for politic while Osaka was a city for business.

Even though it is unclear how this custom begun, but it is generally believed that merchants of Osaka prefecture started to make thick rice roll together and eat on setsubun day, wishing that business goes really nice that year.

First of all, the reason why ehoumaki rolls became so famous like this is that convenience store such as Seven Eleven or lawson used this custom to make money.

They currently sell 100 thousand ehoumaki roll at setsubun day.
Ehoumaki rolls at convenience store are very cheap ones. But many other company try to make their original ehoumaki roll and sell it at setsubun day.
Some of them use quite quality ingredients. And others make very weird or gorgeous ehoumaki roll.


Let's introduce you some photos of these extraordinary ehoumaki rolls in this article!
Here we go!

↑Ehoumaki rice roll shaped waffle roll.
Okay, it's not rice roll anymore.

↑ This is called insect ehoumaki roll. Not just looks like but seriously use 3 kinds of real insect. (Patanga japonica, silkworm, bee larva)
Are will willing to try? It seems they sell them quite well this year.