🥳THE FIRST BIG FESTIVAL OF THE YEAR🎉
After the New Year celebrations there is barely time to catch your breath before Kyōto's first big festival arrives, and this one is particularly important for businesses and those hoping for a prosperous year ahead.
The 'Tōka Ebisu Matsuri' (十日えびす祭) runs for 3 days from January 8th.
Kyōto's Ebisu-jinja (ゑびす神社), known familiarly as 'Ebessan' (えべっさん), is 1 of Japan's 3 most popular Ebisu shrines.
The other 2 are Ōsaka’s Imamiya Ebisu-jinja (今宮戎神社) & Nishinomiya-jinja (西宮神社), head of the Ebisu sect.
Ebisu (恵比寿) is the god of business prosperity, successful crops, and abundance.
Ebisu-jinja's 'Tōka Ebisu Matsuri' (十日えびす祭 'Ebisu’s Festival on the 10th Day') is held around Ebisu's birthday on January 10th (he was born in the Year of the Tiger).
As he god of business prosperity, fisherman, and good fortune, Ebisu is one of the most popular of the '7 Gods of Fortune' (七福神).
In the Muromachi period the idea of celebrating the '7 Gods of Fortune' began in Kyōto, and it is likely that the first Shichifukujin Mairi pilgrimage (都七福神まいり) originated at Ebisu-jinja (えびす神社).
From Kyōto similar pilgrimages spread across Japan.
Ebisu-jinja was established by Myōan Eisai (明菴栄西) in 1202 to act as guardian for Kennin-ji (then being built), and to thank the god Ebisu for saving him from a storm when returning from the mainland.
Eisai is credited with bringing the Rinzai school of Zen and the tradition of tea-drinking to Japan.
The Tōka Ebisu faith (十日えびす信仰) spread to Kyōto from Imamiya-jinja (今宮神社) in Ōsaka in the mid-Edo period, but it was Kyōto's merchants that helped to popularize the festival nationwide.
So crowded is the festival that the shrine's bell ropes are often removed🔕
One of the most common sights at the festival is 'fukuzasa' (福笹 'lucky bamboo grass'), bamboo fronds adorned with auspicious symbols.
The 18th head of Ebisu-jinja first promoted bamboo as symbol of the god and festival.
Photo thanks🙇 - ameblo.jp/eiaiji/
The fast growing grass is strong and hardy, qualities people wish to pass on to their own businesses. As the leaves aged and yellowed they were thought to look like old coins.
It was the shrine's 30th head that struck upon the idea of selling auspicious objects to adorn the fronds.
Photo thanks - https://smoo.jp/
Hanging from Ebisu-jinja's gate is an image of Ebisu attached to a kumade (garden rake). It is customary for visitors to toss coins up, hoping they falls in the rake. Kumade (熊手) are symbols of 'raking in' good fortune, and you often see small versions as charms.
In the Meiji period businesses used the festival as an excuse to improve the post-New Year slowdown by holding special 'seimonbarai' (誓文払い) 'bargain sales' on the same days.
The sales in Ōsaka and Kyōto were known as 'Ebisukō Ōuridashi' (えびす講大売り出し).
Ebisu Festival
vinegar salesman decked out
in formal wear
恵比寿講酢売に袴着せにけり
-Matsuo Bashō (松尾芭蕉).
Ebisu-jinja's 30th head priest was also the first to invite vendors to set up stalls, creating a carnival-like atmosphere that survives to this day.
Camellia Tea Ceremony
martiAn_illustration