The Peasants’ Ebisu-ko Festival

Ebisu-ko occurs on October 19th and 20th every year depending on the location in Japan. Some shrines to Ebisu in the Kansai area have their big festival January 10th, others have it November 20th. But for the most part across Japan the big day is in October. This is a time to buy a bamboo rake, Ebisu parafenalia, and to pray for prosperity.

Ebisu and Ebisu-ko are different in different places

Ebisu is easily recognizable as the kind of fatty jolly man with a long mustache holding a giant fish by the tail. Usually he is surrounded by barrels of rice and maybe Sake. Depending on the region in Japan Ebisu is worshipped in fundamentally different ways.

Ebisu in the Kansai area is the deity of wealth and commerce. The wealthy business people would pray to him to improve their profits. In Eastern Japan and Tokyo area, Ebisu was more of a fishing and farming deity. Thus on this day the peasants had their Ebisu festival because of the end of the autumn harvest. The Ebisu-ko festival also acted as the expected beginning of winter.

Where Can I Enjoy An Ebisu-ko Festival?

A huge Ebisu-ko festival is in Nihonbashi, not far from Tokyo station, in downtown Tokyo. It’s called the Nihombashi Ebisu-ko Bettara-ichi. There is another huge Ebisu-ko festival in Hiroshima in the main shopping arcade near the Atomic Dome Peace Park. For one in your local area please check the Japanese Wikipedia reference below. It has many Ebisu shrines and locations. The Google Map to the side shows the one for Takaradaebisu Shrine in Nihonbashi, Tokyo.

References

In English

https://en.japantravel.com/tokyo/nihombashi-ebisu-ko/16187

http://gethiroshima.com/features/art-entertainment/festivals/ebisu-taisai-festival/

In Japanese

https://ja.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/えびす講

https://shikinobi.com/ebisukou

Photo thanks to NihonBashiTokyo.jp.

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Deep Cuts of Japonica from Rakuten Japan

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