Tori-no-ichi
November 9-21, 2005
A Rooster Festival Without Roosters
Tori-no-ichi celebrates the days of the rooster in November, and this year
is the year of the rooster, so you’d think that tori-no-ichi festivals revolve
around birds. In reality, there were very few of them to be seen when my former
coworker Yuka took
us to the festivals in Asakusa and Shinjuku.
Instead,
the festival revolves around bamboo rakes – presumably to rake in fortune
and money in the coming year. The rakes are highly decorated with all kinds
of good-luck charms, including plenty of cats – maybe they are responsible
for the lack of birds? They are sold at dozens of stalls in a bazaar-like atmosphere
– the air is filled with the shouts of the merchants advertising their goods
and the clapping of wooden sticks that celebrates each sale. 
Amazingly, in
the middle of the chaos a calligrapher quietly writes the signs that go onto
the rakes. Quotes that I got for various rakes ranged from ¥3000 to ¥600,000.
I tried to get Yuka to buy one for Sun, but she didn’t seem to consider that
a good investment.
All the standard ingredients of Japanese festivals are also present: At the center is the shrine, where people donate some money, clap their hands, and say short prayers; a bit to the side we can admire the mikoshi, the portable shrines that probably were carried through the streets during the day; and in front or in the back the stalls offering everything that can be grilled. But the Shinjuku festival has one special addition: One of the last misemono-goya, a tent with short performances by snake eaters, fire breathers, and magicians.