Overview
- The Yo-Ebisu opening on Jan. 9 launched the multi-day festival honoring the deity of commerce at the Naniwa Ward shrine.
- Festival music rang out as worshippers carried fukazasa bamboo branches through the busy grounds.
- Forty-six fukumusume in traditional dress affixed rice bales, large coin charms and other talismans to visitors’ branches.
- A self-employed visitor from Yao said she prayed to run her business without depending on overseas tourists.
- The main Hon-Ebisu day on Jan. 10 features the Hoe-kago procession through Osaka’s Minami district, with festivities continuing to Nokori-Ebisu on Jan. 11.