(NOAH) Setsubun at Honmonji Temple (3rd February 2020)

Each year Pro Wrestlers (and other athletes and celebrities) gather at Honmonji Temple in Tokyo to take part in the Setsubun celebrations, and because Rikidozan is buried here it has become tradition to invite wrestlers to the ceremony. The tradition started with Jumbo Tsuruta.
Setsubun is the day before the beginning of Spring in Japan, and is always celebrated on 3rd February. The athletes\celebrities will come out onto the balcony and throw packets of roasted soybean (Mamemaki, lit "bean scattering"), to the crowd below. As they throw the beans they and the crowd will say "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" ("Demon's out! Luck in!"). The members of the crowd will take the beans home for their own ritual of casting out the demons of bad luck, and  to dispel any wandering souls who may have come close to the home.

The participants in the ceremony (even the women) will wear a type of Kimono known as Haori Hakama, which were worn traditionally the Samurai at court during Japan's feudal era. Normally people will wear a suit underneath it, or else their best clothes, (but I am informed that Big Japan's Takuya Nomura turned up in Astronaut's t-shirt and jeans, and rather than wear shoes, Iwatani wore socks which Chigusa commented on).

Taking part in the ceremony of 2020 at Honmonji where Noah's Naomichi Marufuji and Kaito Kiyomiya. Other attendees included Kenta Kobashi (who attends every year), Jun Akiyama (was probably sarcastic to\about Kobashi at one point), Jushin Thunder Lyger, Keiji Mutoh, Kento Miyahara, Mitsuo Momota (Rikidozan's son), Chikara Momota (Rikidozan's grandson), Chigusa Nagayo, and Mayu Iwatani.

In the Great Hall, the wrestlers posed for pictures with each other - Kenta Kobashi and "Kaito Kiyomiya, Noah's Young Ace", and Naomichi Marufuji had a chance to speak to Jushin Thunder Lyger, of whom he was inspired by to become a wrestler.

Out on the balcony, Kiyomiya and Miyahara stood together to throw the beans. Kiyomiya was said to have a "good pitch", although he pulled a duck face* when throwing them! Touchingly, Kiyomiya was the only person to turn around and wave to the crowd when everyone was filing back into the hall.

Afterwards it looks like Mohammed Yone put on an aftershow party for them at his restaurant, Yoneya, Kaito Kiyomiya went, but sadly Naomichi Marufuji could not as he had to enter hospital for the operation on his right knee.

With thanks to: Soiroiro, JenJ
Picture credit: Noah GHC, Naomichi Marufuji 

*Sucked in his cheeks and pouted his lips