Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Fuku Musume (福娘): The Children's Ebisu Festival 子供戎祭

Anette 5:18:00 PM Festival, Fuku Musume, Osaka, Shrine

Adorable kids' drawings at the shrine

As a Fukumusume I got the chance to participate in the Children's Ebisu Festival in the Imamiya-Ebiu shrine this weekend. The "Kodomo Ebisu" is Imamiya Ebisu shrine's summer festival, and it is held annually around the last weekend of July. A lot of children come to visit with their parents to play and have fun, so the shrine is filled with a pleasant atmosphere. It is quite interesting how different the shrine looked compared to the Tōka Ebisu festival in January, one could almost mistakenly think that they were two different places..
My role on the first day was helping out by the fishing dam. The kids all got a rod which they used to fish paper fishes (and animals) with, and the kids could get candy if they were lucky and got a fish with the note 当たり on it.

Kids trying to catch the paper fishes!

The fishing dam

A somewhat blurry picture of our group of Fuku Musume-girls in action at the festival.

In addition to the fishing dam there were also a whole load of other activities for the kids as well. On the stage they were having dancing and balloon shows, and the kids looked like they were having a lot of fun. On the second day of the festival me and three of the other Fuku Musume-girls got the honor of opening the snow slide, and the rest of the day we helped out with one of the ballgames.

The snow slide at the Kodomo Ebisu Matsuri seen from the top!

Since I was working at the festival it wasn't easy to take a lot of photos though. I had to use my iPhone 3G, which just doesn't take that good pictures.. Here are some photos taken with my normal camera after all the kids had gone home:

Drawings made by kids used to decorate the shrine

The main temple in the shrine.

The fishing dam after all the children have gone home..

The Kodomo Ebisu festival was quite fun to participate in, and it was nice to be back in the shrine too as I've got some good memories from my work there during the Toka Ebisu festival in January. The Imamiya Ebisu shrine sure has some cool festivals^^! Lastly, here is a short video from the festival:

Place	Imamiya Ebisu Shrine (今宮戎神社)
Map
Festival	The Children's Ebisu Festival (子供戎祭り) held annually during the last weekend of July
Access	A couple of minutes walk from the Imamiyaebisu station (今宮戎) or around 5 minutes from Daikokucho (大国町) station

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About Anette
Anette came to Japan as an exchange student in 2010, met the love of her life and got stuck. From her base in Tokyo she writes about her experiences as a full-time worker in Tokyo and about her travels in Japan and abroad. She's a free-spirited adventurer who enjoys both the great outdoors and her urban lifestyle.