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Tuesday, January 10, 2012

January 10th Business Success Festival


Today, January 10th is '10th Ebisu Festival' which means 'January 10th Business Success Festival'.

Ebisu is believed to be the patron deity of business and fisheries. Many people come to the Ebisu shrine to pray for happiness and business success. There are a number of Ebisu shrines in Japan, and especially in Osaka, they are very popular  because Osaka used to thrive as a commercial center of Japan in Edo period (1603～1867).


At the festival, people buy a good luck bamboo branch which is a highly popular charm for business prosperity. It is decorated with lots of lucky items such as oval gold coins, sea bream and rice bales. Many merchants return the old bamboo branch of the last year to the shrine and get the new one for this year.


This festival is held at many shrines, especially in Kansai. Imamiya Ebisu Shrine in Osaka city is the most famous one, but I don't want to go to too crowded place, so I visited a local Ebisu shrine in Ibaraki city. I  feel the people's strong hope for business success in the long-lasting economic slowdown in Japan.

beautiful shinto maiden praying for happiness and prosperity

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4 comments:

  1. snowwhiteJanuary 10, 2012 at 11:46 PM

    Hi,
    You are right. I visited Imamiya Ebisu Shrine today. I was so tired as too many people came here to pray for good business.
    I especially like your photo of a shrine maiden very much!
    Best wishes,
    keiko

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  2. Jane Heitman HealyJanuary 11, 2012 at 12:12 AM

    What a better idea to celebrate business success than go forward with fear of failure! Thanks for the info and the colorful photos.

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  3. cuckiJanuary 11, 2012 at 3:54 AM

    hello dear, thank you for sharing this lovely post..very beautiful and sweet festival..i love it..
    the last picture is very cute..so much ME..i love everything in it..
    love for you deary xx

    ReplyDelete
  4. Gill - That British WomanJanuary 11, 2012 at 9:29 AM

    you have such lovely festivals and occasions in Japan, you're very lucky,

    Gill in Canada

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