Hakata Area | History & Culture Toka Ebisu Shrine
Located inside Higashi Park at Yoshizuka, Hakata-ku, Fukuoka City. It is said that the man named Takeuchi found a pair of divine statues of Ebisu and Daikoku at a beach on the way from Kashii shrine and Hakozaki shrine and then founded a shrine dedicated to those gods more than 400 years ago. Naturally, the enshrined gods of the shrine are Kotoshironushino-Okami “Ebisu” and Okuninushino-Okami “Daikoku”. This shrine is usually quiet but it becomes busy with many visitors during the new year festival called “Toka Ebisu”, held from January 8th to 11th. Over a million people visit here and wish for the success in business or family prosperity. About 400 stalls are set up during the festival. All lottery tickets sold here come with a lucky prize. You can hear throughout the shrine the shouting voices that declare the outcomes of lotteries; “Oatari! (lottery win)” and “Suehirogari! (growing prosperity promised)”. Also, on the 9th of January around 3:00 pm, you can see a famous scene of Geisha girls visiting the shrine, which is known as “Kachimairi.”