Toka-Ebisu

photos: (c)joyphoto.com (Japanese version only)
These pictures were taken in 2010.

Toka-Ebisu(十日えびす) is being held at Imamiya Ebisu Jinja Shrine(今宮戎神社) in Osaka from anuary 9th to 11th. It's a festival to pray for the prosperity of business.
(Refer to Ebisu-kou and Bettara fair for information on Ebisu-kou)

Fuku-musume(福娘:Lucky Girls) bestow a moso bamboo branch on visitors and attach a talisman and auspicious objects called kiccho(吉兆) on it from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for the three days.

The objects are modeled after eboshi(烏帽子), fan(末広,suehiro), moneybag(銭袋,zenibukuro), oval gold coin(小判,koban), sea bream, mortar(臼,usu), lucky mallet(打出の小槌,uchide-no-kozuchi), account book(大福帳,daifukucho), masu(升:a square wooden box used to measure rice), bags of rice(米俵,kome-dawara), awabi-noshi(鮑熨斗:dried and stretched abalone), weight(分銅, fundo) and chogin(丁銀:oval silver coin in the Edo Period).

Eboshi is a black-lacquered headgear originally worn by court nobles in ancient Japan.

Bamboo branches and talismans are provided gratis, but other objects cost 1,500 yen each.

 

Hoekago procession(宝恵駕籠行列, Hoekago Gyoretsu) paraded on 9th. Dressed geisha visited the shrine on palanquins in the middle of the 18th century. Now entertainers, baseball players, geisha and puppeteer and puppet of bunraku participate in the parade.
National Bunraku Theatre is near the shrine.
Fuku-musume is wearing eboshi.