Tori no Ichi Festival: Praying for Prosperity in Asakusa and Shinjuku
Tori no Ichi is a lively Tokyo festival held on multiple dates in November to invite good fortune and business success. In 2025 the market days fall on 5, 17 and 29 November, with eve gatherings the nights before. The centres of activity are Ootori Shrine in Asakusa and Hanazono Shrine in Shinjuku, and each location has a distinct mood.
The symbol of the festival is the kumade, a decorated bamboo rake. Vendors build them in sizes from palm-length to taller than a person and cover them with gold coins, masks, cranes and rice bales. The idea is simple: you use a rake to pull things toward you, so a kumade helps draw in luck for the year ahead. Shopkeepers, restaurateurs and office teams come to buy a new rake, and many bring last year’s to return it in thanks.
Asakusa’s Ootori Shrine is considered the festival’s pioneer site, with records from the eighteenth century. The neighbourhood’s older streets suit the event, and the approach roads fill with more than five hundred food stalls. Smoke from grills drifts through the lanes, stallholders chant to attract attention, and the sale of a kumade ends with the vendor and buyer clapping in rhythm to seal the wish for prosperity.
In Shinjuku, Hanazono Shrine glows under an installation of nine hundred lanterns. The contrast is striking. You step off busy avenues into a square of warm light, and rows of kumade sellers line the paths. Games, simple sweets and classic festival noodles keep families and office workers around into the evening.
Visitors are welcome at both shrines. It is fine to browse without buying, though choosing a small rake makes for a practical souvenir with meaning. Cash is useful for food stalls and games. The markets run late, so Tori no Ichi pairs well with an afternoon of leaf viewing followed by a festival dinner. It also provides a counterpoint to the reflective tone of night gardens and shrine rituals elsewhere in the month. Where other events dwell on art or nature, Tori no Ichi celebrates energy, trade and the hope that next year will be better.
