Imamiya Ebisu Shrine Toka Ebisu

During the Toyotomi period, the faith of commoners in Ebisu deepened. Around the same time, Toyotomi Hideyori ordered Katagiri Katsumoto to oversee the construction of the shrine buildings. The town also began to develop during this period, and the Osaka townspeople became active. In the Edo period, Osaka prospered further as a commercial center, and concurrently, Imamiya Ebisu Shrine came to be deeply revered as a divine protector of Osaka's commerce. The Toka Ebisu festival also started to flourish around this time, and the oldest extant map of Osaka, "Ashiwakebune," from the third year of Enpō (1675), depicts scenes from the Toka Ebisu festival.
Furthermore, in the field of literature, the early Edo period haiku poet Konishi Raisan's collection of poems mentions Imamiya, and the mid-period travelogue by Ota Shokusanjin also records the "Toka Ebisu" festival. The Joruri play "En'yo Onna Mai-ginu" also features "Toka Ebisu" as an important background setting.
In the Meiji era, the previous Toneri formed guilds such as the Zakoba Fish Market, the Lumber Merchants Association, the Ramie Fiber Merchants Association, the Candle Merchants Association, the Lacquer Merchants Association, and the Hardware Merchants Association, making Toka Ebisu even more prosperous.
Although these festivals grew grander with the times, the shrine was unfortunately completely destroyed in the air raids of 1945. However, the main sanctuary was rebuilt in 1956, and the Toka Ebisu festival once again became very lively. Today, as the first festival of the year, it attracts a large number of visitors from the Kinki region and indeed from all over the country during the three days of Toka Ebisu.
Photo: Quoted from the official website of Imamiya Ebisu Shrine