Ebisu Matsuri

This post is way off-season.

Ebisu Matsuri in Osaka is every year from Jan 9-11. This festival is for Ebisu, one of the coolest gods in Japan. Ebisu is the god of business and prosperity, and the festival is held at Imamiya Ebisu shrine in Osaka. A close subway station is Ebisu-cho, which is also nearby Osaka’s version of Akihabara, Den-Den Town.

One of the most famous Osaka dialect phrases is “moukari makka?” 儲かりまっか？ Which means, “Are you making a lot of money?” Or, “How’s business?” Which is said to have been a regular common greeting in Osaka, as the city was so focused on trade. These days people rarely seriously greet each other that way, but due to that history, Ebisu Matsuri in Osaka is big time. One of the chants during Ebisu Matsuri is, “Syoubai hanjyo de Sasa mottekoi!” 商売繁盛で笹持ってこい！ Which means, maybe… Bring the Sasa to make business prosper! Please fix me if I got that wrong.

Sasa 笹 is basically “bamboo grass” according to a translation site. This is the food that pandas eat. I’m not sure exactly why it is used on Ebisu Matsuri, but it supposedly brings good luck. During the festival, people will get their own Sasa branch, they hand them out for free at the temple. Then, buy various charms to hang from it.

These charms were MOFO expensive. I think I dropped 5000 yen on lucky charms that are meant to help me earn more money this year. I only bought about three charms! So far they are not working well, as already my small investment in NZ dollars came back weak, and our companies performance was bad so my bonus was cut 10%. なんでやねん。 Come on Ebisu, where’s the love? Ebisu-san and Daikoku-san! They come together as a set.

- Harvey