Imamiya Ebisu Shrine

Imamiya Ebisu Shrine (今宮戎神社) is a Shinto shrine in Ebisu-nishi, Naniwa-ku, Osaka, dedicated to Ebisu, the deity of commercial prosperity. The principal kami is Kotoshironushi-no-Mikoto, recorded in the Kojiki (712 CE) as the son of Okuninushi who consented to the cession of the land on his father's behalf. From the medieval period he came to be identified with Ebisu, the figure with fishing rod and sea bream, in a tradition shared with Izumo Taisha and Nishinomiya Jinja. According to shrine tradition, Imamiya Ebisu was founded in 600 CE by Prince Shotoku as the western guardian of Shitenno-ji, and from the Edo period it became a centre of merchant devotion in Osaka. The Toka Ebisu festival of 9 to 11 January, with its fukumusume distributing lucky bamboo sprigs, attracts roughly one million visitors each year.