As I live very close to the Tookaichi Ebisu Shrine I went to see the festival on Saturday evening (10th November).

Lucky rakes on sale at the Tookaichi Festival. The Tookaichi Ebisu-Shrine is just behind the stall.	There were street stalls selling various kinds of food, such as grilled meat on skewers (yaki-niku), and hot sweet cakes filled with bean paste or something and pressed into the shape of fish (tai-manju). Other stalls offered live goldfish, toys for the kids, and lucky rakes to help shops and businesses "rake in the money". The festival only takes place in a couple of streets that form a "T" shape just behind the junction of two main roads. Shops and restaurants in this area set up stalls in the street.
Every year there is a performance of Kagura at this festival. Kagura is a traditional form of Japanese festive folk-drama. The local people set up a stage in an empty parking lot and several Kagura plays are performed on it. Each one is quite short. The plots are simple, and there is a lot of dancing and music. The musicians kneel at one side of the stage and play traditional instruments, the Japanese flute and drum.
Dancing Devils of Ooeyama at the Tookaichi Ebisu Shrine Festival, 10th November 2001	In one performance Ebisu threw rice cakes at the audience, and then "fished" for money. Members of the audience put envelopes of money, or banknotes on the "hook" on the end of his fishing rod, and he reeled in his "catch" as if it were a fish. The next show told the story of a couple of devils from Ooeyama who were killed by a couple of chaps for some reason or other.
The Chinchikurin Boys. They opened the front of their restaurant and set up tables outside during the Ebisu Shrine festival. Top To find out more about Kagura, click here.	In the last show several dragons appeared and one of them ate a village girl. The dragons then got drunk on a bucket of Japanese sake (alcohol), which is probably why they were no good at fighting a swordsman who came on stage and cut their heads off! Between two of the Kagura performances I stopped at a local restaurant called Chinchikurin for a glass of hot sake. After the Kagura had finished I went back to the restaurant. By that time one or two of the waiters had become as drunk as the dragons in the performance!

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