Sunday, February 7, 2016

商売繁盛で笹持ってこい！Behind the scene of the Toka Ebisu Festival 2016

Anette 5:01:00 PM Festival, Fuku Musume, Japan, Osaka

The Toka Ebisu festival (十日戎) is one of the largest festivals in Osaka, with a history stretching all the way back to the Edo period (17th-19th Century).
Every year more than a million people visit the 3-day long festival in order to pray for good fortune in the new year, especially in relation to business.
The festival is held in the honour of the Japanese god Ebisu, locally known as Ebbessan, and the whole shrine area are filled with items that has his face printed on it (A face that might be quite familiar for those of you who enjoy Ebisu beer).

I have had the honour to work at the festival every year for the last 4 years as a special type of shrine maiden called Fuku musume, or "good luck girl" (福娘). In order to become a Fuku musume in the first place you have to go through an audition that is held once a year during the autumn, but if you're indeed luck and get elected you'll have reserved yourself a spot to come back and work at the festival every year if you'd like as a fuku musume OG, or 歴代の福娘.
The main job is to sell lucky charms to the people visiting the shrine, which you attach to the bamboos that the visitors have fetched from the area around the shrine entrance. If you visit the shrine during this period you'll probably hear the background music with people shouting "shobai hanjo de sasa mottekoi!", which means something like "come with your bamboo branch if you want to succeed in business", implying that the god Ebisu will grant you good fortune in the new year.

★商売繁盛で笹持ってこい！★

Inside the shrine, the elected Fuku Musume girls of 2016 ready for action. Note the characteristic golden eboshi hat.

As a result of their desire to buy fortune for the new year the shrine area is completely packed with worshippers who are willing to spend ten-thousands of yen to buy themselves good fortune for the new year. Company representatives often visit the shrine on behalf of their company, and while some are looking for the same item as they buy every single year some of them ask us to attach whatever items we would recommend within their budget.

This year's Fuku Musume girls are designated by the golden eboshi hat

The price of one lucky charm is usually 1500 yen (around 13 dollars), and many of the company representatives spend as much as between 10.000-40.000 yen (85-342 USD) just to buy lucky charms for their companies. On top of that, the luck only lasts one year before it "magically" expires. Thus the company representatives bring along with them all the old lucky charms they bought last year, which are burnt in a big bonfire at the end of the festival. So to put it this way; The Toka Ebisu festival indeed brings good business.. At least for some people.

Visitors to the shrine waiting to buy lucky charms

While some people come to buy lucky charms others simply come to take pictures of the cute girls

The 3-day long festival is certainly an experience to be a part of due to the many interesting observations one can make, and even though this was my forth time participating I still had a lot of fun. When you're working at the festival you'll find yourself in the center of attention for the better or the worse, as you'll have a bunch of Fuku Musume-fans taking pictures of you from any possible angle all day long. It is impressive how some of them walk around fully equipped with their own photo studio around their belly; one guy was even carrying around a mini-printer and handed us pictures as soon as he was done taking our photos. Incredible! Others can hang around for hours, and when you finally think they have been satisfied and gone home they suddenly show up again to take even more photos.

Another little *ehem* behind the scene photo showing the Fuku Musume girl sitting next to me attaching lucky charm to a bamboo branch

This year I had chosen not to participate in my kimono, and instead wore a Imamiya Ebisu festival robe. The pictures over were given by some of the festival participants, one showing me attaching a lucky charm to a bamboo stick and the other one posing with a plastic gold fish lucky charm with the neat price of 1500 yen, or around 13 dollars.

福娘会 for OGs like me

Special editionHello Kitty and Fuku Musume lucky charms sold at the festival

The Toka Ebisu Festival is held annually on the 9th-11th of January, so if you are in Osaka during this period I would definitely recommending taking a couple of hours to experience this peculiar Japanese festival. Taking the trip down to Osaka for the Toka Ebisu festival has become almost like a tradition for me. If I have the chance I’ll probably be back next year as well, simply because the atmosphere of the festival is so unique. After having worked at the festival again I hope that 2016 also will be a year filled with good fortune.

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