Toka Ebisu Matsuri

I just got to see my first matsuri in 2010. The “Toka Ebisu” festival is a big event for business owners as they go visit the shrines and pray for good luck and fortunes for their business. Ebisu (or familiarly called “Ebessan” in Kansai diallect) is the patron deity of business and fishery. Normal people also like to go and pray for happiness and success in the new year.

The festival is popular in the whole Kansai area where there are many shrines dedicated to Ebisu. The Imamiya Ebisu Shrine in the city center of Osaka is particularly popular and is drawing in huge number of visitors coming to visit the place and enjoy the hunderds of food-stalls located around the vicinity.  This is a grand event which has continued ever since the Edo Period (17th-19th Century) when Osaka used to thrive as a commercial town. January 10th is the main festival day, and the 9th is called the Eve of Ebisu, while the 11th is known as the “Last Helping of Luck.” The famous Ebisu Bridge over the Dotonbori River was originally built for worshippers visiting this shrine.

The ritual of this festival is to come to the shrine and replace the old bamboo-twig from the year ago. Lucky charms, dolls and other blessed ornaments can be bought at the shrine to decorate the twigs. The twig will then be hanged somewhere on the wall in the office.

 

Transport: Near Imamiya Ebisu Station on the Nankai Koya Line. Or 5 minutes’ walk from Daikoku-cho Station on the Midosuji subway or from Ebisu-machi Station on the Sakaisuji subway.

Website: As always, JNTO has some information about it in English and the Imamiya Ebisu shrine website (in Japanese) has all the details of it (Shedule, Streetmap, etc).