>>279990784
The term translated as "evil spirit" here was 邪気 but the Japanese text did put 鬼 or "oni" in parentheses after. The trivia was a bit different, it just said "豆は魔滅に通じ、鬼を追い払うと信じられている。" which apparently translates to "It is believed that beans have the power to ward off evil spirits and drive away oni". The kanji bit is a localizer adding some context. This is a common theory regarding the origin of the custom, saying that 魔滅 (mametsu) sounds like 豆 (mame).