鬼は外福は内 oni wa soto fuku wa uchi Devils Go Out Fortune Come In

These are words shouted, not a maxim: ten syllables of Japanese with no verb, the call of the bean-throwing at Setsubun, the eve of spring in early February. At night the head of the household scatters roasted beans through the rooms, ordering the demons out and inviting the god of fortune in, and each person eats as many beans as their years.

The two halves are said in either order.

The call has no author; it is first written down in 1447, in the diary of the Zen abbot 瑞渓周鳳, who recorded 景冨 scattering roasted beans through every room on the last night of winter and calling out 鬼外福内.

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