Vikingess Voyages: Fukumusume (福娘): Working at the Tōka Ebisu Festival (十日戎) 2015

The annual Tōka Ebisu festival held in the Imamiya-Ebisu shrine (今宮戎神社) in Osaka is one of the city's largest festivals, and every year the 3-day long event attracts around one million visitors. The festival is held from January 9-11 (the most important day is the 10th, hence tōka ebisu) and is mainly visited by merchants who come to Imamiya-Ebisu to pray for business prosperity in the new year.

Some of the items being sold at the festival

Fukumusume-girls selected for their role in previous years (歴代の福娘)

A couple of years ago I had the honor of being selected as a Fukumusume (福娘) shrine maiden for the Tōka Ebisu festival. The title literarily means something like lucky daughter or girl of luck, and the lucky girls get the chance to work at the festival wearing special kimonos and the golden hat called eboshi.
Even though it has been a couple of years already since I participated as fukumusume for the first time I still have been coming back to the shrine every year to take part in the Tōka Ebisu festival. Previous fukumusume girls are allowed to work only one day during the 3-day festival, and while some get to wear their kimono others wear clothing provided by the shrine.

OB 今宮福娘会

Backstage

This time I ended up working at the festival wearing a red festival coat called Happi (法被, 半被) provided by the shrine instead of my fukumusume kimono, but it was still very nice to once again have the chance to participate in the festival. This was my fourth time to participate, so I felt a lot more comfortable in regards to the name and description of the various lucky items we were selling. Working at the the Tōka Ebisu Festival was busy as always, with temple visitors coming up to our booth constantly to buy lucky items or to take photos, so the day was over before it even began. I already look forward to participating again next year!

The Imamiya-Ebisu shrine in the morning.

Basic Info

Place	Imamiya Ebisu Shrine (今宮戎神社)
Map
Festival	Toka Ebisu Festival (十日戎祭り) held annually on January 9th-11th
Access	A couple of minutes walk from the Imamiyaebisu station (今宮戎) or around 5 minutes from Daikokucho (大国町) station