Setsubun is the day before spring in the old Japanese calendar. On February 2, the San Diego Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park celebrated Setsubun, with hundreds of adults and children gathered outdoors in masks as evil was banished and spring welcomed with good fortune. The San Diego Go Club was invited to staff a booth at the event to teach Go to passersby. “Many were interested in learning Go,” reports Ted Terpstra, who says copies of “The Way to Go,” supplied by the American Go Foundation were given out to those interested.
Roasted soybeans were thrown by children at players wearing demon masks and bearing frightening clubs and hammers as drums beat in the background. Children shouted “”Devils out! Fortune in.” This symbolically purified the place by driving away evil spirits that bring misfortune.
“Over the years, the Japanese Friendship Garden has proven to be a fertile place to find new players and sometimes a 6-dan for the SDGC, which now has over 80 AGA members,” says Terpstra. The club is once again meeting in person with over 25-players (25-kyus to four 6-dans) attending last Thursday.
