Tori no Ichi



Meguro Otori Jinja


Tori no Ichi(酉の市:the Cock Fair or The Festival of the Rooster) is an annual festival held at the Otori Jinja shrines(鷲神社) all over Japan on the Days of the Rooster in November.


Meguro Otori Jinja


Tori(Rooster) is one of the Junishi(十二支) or the twelve animal signs of the Oriental zodiac. The days of the Tori occur every 12 days in November.

Photos by (c)Tomo.Yun
 
 



Tori no Ichi in Fukagawa

  
The festival is held on November 2nd, 14th and 26th this year. There is a saying that fires frequently occur in the year when there are three Days of the Rooster in November.
(refer to previous post for information about Tori no Ichi.)

photo by 無料画像集


The Web site of Asakusa Tori no Ichi(浅草酉の市) is here(English version).

Meguro Otori Jinja

Decorated bamboo rakes are sold at open-air stalls on grounds of shrines.
Originally, a rake called Kumade(熊手) was decorated only with fat-faced woman's mask called Okame(阿亀) and zigzag-shaped paper streamer related to Shinto called Shide(四手). Okame is a lucky charm to bring in good fortune and is also knwon as Otafuku(お多福).


Meguro Otori Jinja


Now kumade is decorated with various lucky charms including straw bags of rice, former Japanese oval gold coins(大判小判, oban-koban), pine, sea bream, crane, turtle, ume, fan, drawstring bag for holding money(巾着, kinchaku), red-painted good-luck doll in the shape of Bodhidharma(daruma), magic mallet(打出の小槌, uchide-no-kozuchi), turnip, beckoning cat(招き猫, maneki-neko), arrow hitting the target(当たり矢, atariya), square container, dice, nandina, a box exclusively used to store coins(千両箱, sen-ryo-bako), coral, scroll, old‐fashioned account book(大福帳, daifukucho), Ebisu and Daikoku(恵比寿,大黒) of Seven Deities of Good Luck and treasure ship.

Photos by (c)Tomo.Yun