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We pick up a new good luck charm at the Tori no Ichi Festival in Shinjuku

Casey Baseel Nov 19, 2013
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Japan’s urban and rural areas alike are dotted with temples and shrines, but there’s no practice of attending regular services at them. Instead, visitors primarily come to offer a few yen as a donation, say a quick prayer, and pick up one of the plethora of good luck charms and amulets sold there, many of which have specific purposes such as passing an important exam or finding a new love.

But every member of our team is already out of college, and so popular with the opposite sex that we’re starting to feel bad about not leaving any for the rest of the populace. Looking further down our to-do list, we noticed that “build mansion with supermodel grotto” was preceded by “achieve economic success,” so we decided to head to our local Shinto shrine for Tori no Ichi, Japan’s annual festival for buying good luck charms for success in business.

A short walk from the RocketNews24 offices, in the center of Tokyo’s bustling Shinjuku neighborhood, you’ll find Hanazono-jinja Shrine. Almost perfectly dividing Shinjuku’s polished shopping center district from its hard-partying bar and hostess club quarter, Hanazono-jinja is the sort of sudden cultural oasis that makes Tokyo one of the world’s best cities for exploring.

On most days, the shrine is pretty quiet, and makes a nice place to rest your feet if you’ve been running around downtown for the past few hours. However, for three nights each November at Hanazono-jinja, along with other shrines and temples across Japan, vendors set up stalls selling decorative rakes said to bestow prosperity and health to those who purchase them.

Last year, RoketNews24 purchased its first good luck rake, hoping for a bit of divine assistance in bringing our loyal readers interesting stories from around Asia. It’s been a pretty good year for us, enough so that we’ve even been able to add a few fresh faces to the team, so we decided to head back to the festival this year. We visited on its first night, called Tori no Ichi, to buy another.

Like many charms in Japan, the rakes are said to keep their effect for one year, after which tradition holds they should be returned to where they were purchased. As Shinjuku is one of Japan’s busiest office districts, Hanazono-jinja’s Tori no Ichi is packed each year, but we dove into the crowds in search of the craftsman who had sold us our rake last year, just as he had instructed us to do.

▼ We got a little sidetracked by the snack stalls…

▼ And the carnival games (we can’t be thinking about work all the time)

It’s often said that Japanese culture prizes understated aesthetics, and while this frequently holds true, it is by no means the case with kumade, the rakes sold at Tori no Ichi. Maybe it’s a sign of our endearing sense of child-like wonder (we keep telling people that’s what it is, and not immaturity), but last year our first instinct was to get the biggest, flashiest one we could afford.

It turns out though that bigger isn’t always better, though, and that there are some traditions to observe when buying your rake. As the vendor explained to us last year, when buying a kumade for your office for the first time, a smaller one is best.

The logic behind this solid. When you’re first starting a business venture, it’s best to be prudent with your spending and conservative with your expectations. Put your money and effort into steady, sustainable growth, and save the expenditures for things like espresso makers, ping pong tables, a bunch of PlayStation 4 consoles and extra-intricate kumade for until you’ve got a few years of steady profits pumping up your balance sheet.

There’s a similar protocol regarding the colored cord attached to the front of the rake. Early on, it’s considered best to buy one with a yellow cord, before leveling up to red, purple, and eventually reflective gold. Making a sudden jump in rank, or progressing out of order, is said to lessen or eliminate the effects of the kumade.

The preferred place to put the kumade is somewhere where it can be seen, and we’d been instructed to tell it o-tsukare sama desu (thanks for your hard work) and itte kimasu (we’ll be back soon) as we left the office each day.

While we were trying to track down the owner of the stall who’d sold us our rake last year, we imagined what type he’d recommend for us this time. Once we finally found him though, we were surprised by his suggestion.

“The same size as last year’s, with the same color cord, is your best bet,” he informed us. At first, we were a little disappointed. After all of the days and months we’d spent slaving away writing about video games and hamburgers, we’d been hoping for a red cord, at least.

But then we though a little harder, and we were moved by what he’d told us. The craftsman wasn’t telling us we hadn’t made and progress in the last year. Instead, he was encouraging us to keep working hard and stay hungry, even if we had already stopped for some oysters at one of the food stalls.

We were impressed by both his wisdom and selflessness, since buying a smaller rake meant less income for him. “Remember, the kumade is not a god,” he reminded us. “It might seem like a god, because it helps people, but the real god, the real ability to make things happen is inside of you.”

Touched by his words, we followed his advice and selected another simple kumade with a yellow cord. Leaving Hanazono-jinja, walking past people with far more ostentatious rakes than our own, we felt somehow humble and proud at the same time.

Sure, we still have a long way to go until RocketNews24 becomes the most trusted news source on Earth (seriously, why does anyone still turn to CNN when we can tell you so much more about the newest developments in instant ramen?). But we made it through the last 12 months OK, and as long as we keep at it, taking things one year at a time, eventually we’ll get there. And if you’re looking to pick up a kumade of your own, you’ve still got time, as the third and final night of the festival (called San no Tori) is November 27.

▼ Thanks for reading, and here’s hoping that cord is red next year!

Shrine information
Hanazono-jinja Shrine 花園神社
Tokyo, Shinjuku-ku, Shinjuku 5-17-3
東京都新宿区新宿５−１７−３

Photos: RocketNew24
[ Read in Japanese ]