Toka-Ebisu is merchants’ festival for praying for the prosperity of business, held every year at the Imamiya Ebisu Shrine, Osaka Prefecture, from January 8 to 12 every year, which is loved and called “Ebessan” by the citizen. And a five minutes’ walk from the Daikoku-cho Station on the Midosuji subway can lead your way to the festival, which makes it more pleasant for the visitors.
It is a festival for the business men and a festival for the fisheries as well.

The festival is held in many shrines. And the Imamiya Ebisu Shrine is the most famous one. Every year millions of tourists will visit here and hoping that this will bring them good luck in the following years. Most of them are business men. And there exists an old tradition since the 18th century that a good luck bamboo branch will give them. Usually this branch is decorated with many things, like the gold coins and the rice bales, which the Japanese people believe that these stuffs can bring them good luck. Usually the festival will last for three days, from January 10th to the 11th. Those 3 days will make the Osaka city into a commercial center. The first day’s Eve is called the eve of Ebisu. And the second day is the main day of the festival. And the last day is famous for the “Last Helping of Luck.” On the 10th, if you visit there, you can get a lot of lucky goods from the celebrities or the fuku-musume (good luck girls) during the parade. But you have to take the competing against more than 3,000 other candidates first before you get that chance. But once you get selected, you will become the fuku-musume and you can receive lots of marriage proposals. And if you can wake up early in the morning and catch up with the morning market on the 10th you can buy the sea bream, special fish for the festivals. And there are also many places selling the lucky things, like the beckoning cats and the Daruma dolls.