Visiting Seven Gods of Good Fortune（Shicchifukujin）

Visiting Seven Gods became very popular around middle Edo era.

People visited shrines and temples of seven gods especially in the beginning of the year wishing for a good luck.

Nowadays this trend still continues and many people visit shrines and temples.
You can find “Seven gods visiting tour” everywhere in Japan.
Koto city has two popular course: Fukagawa and Kameido.
Let me explain a little bit about Fukagawa course today.

List of temples and divine favors are as follows:

Name of Shrine or Temple	Location	Name of God	Divine favors (goriyaku)
Fukagawa Shinmeiguu	2 minutes from Morishita ST	Juroujin	God of long life
Fukagawa Inarijinja	3 minutes from Kiyosumi Shirakawa ST	Hotei	God of good fortune
Ryuukoin	6 minutes from Kiyosumi Shirakawa ST	Bishamonten	God of War, Success
Enshuin	6 minutes from Kiyosumi Shirakawa ST	Daikokuten	God of good crops
Shingyoji	5 minutes from Monzennakacho ST	Fukurokuju	God of happiness, wealth, and long life
Fuyuki Bentendo	10 minutes from Monzennakacho ST	Benzaiten	Goddes of art and wisdom
Tomioka Hachimangu	3 minutes from Monzennakacho ST	Ebisu	God of business

Although I showed the distance from the nearby subway station, you can easily walk all seven in about 2 hours. Good things to walk all the way are that you may find many interesting spots on the way. There are fine restaurants and coffee shops. If you feel tired, you can take a rest and enjoy fine food.  Also there are several historical spots to know a history of Fukagawa area.

One good information is that from Jan 1 to 15, you can purchase a special signature board for seven gods and can collect a unique red seal of god at each temple or shrine.

And when you collect all of seven red seals, your good fortunes will be promised.(I believe)

If you are interested, get a signature board, collect seals and catch the good fortues of the year.

(by Hiroyasu)

Development of tourism destinations in the east of Tokyo

Taito City, Sumida City and Koto City conducted a “trial tour” on December 9 and 10. Three cities worked together to aim for promotion of tourism businesses and development of attractive sightseeing courses in the east of Tokyo.

Six participants, two from China and four from the U.S., joined this trial tour which included the following main tourist spots.

• Taito City: Sensoji Temple in Asakusa, Kaneiji Temple and Ameyoko shopping street in Ueno
•  Sumida City: Watching morning practice at a Sumo stable, The Sumida Hokusai Museum
• Koto City: Kiyosumi Gardens, Fukagawa Edo Museum

One of KEV members showed the participants around Fukagawa Edo Museum.

In the near future, opinions and suggestions from the participants will be used to revitalize tourism resources in the east of Tokyo.

(by Masao)

TIARA KOTO, My Love

Old Koto Public Hall

Koto City is at the end of autum season.
This BLOG introduces a cultural facility of Koto City, TIARA KOTO.

Koto Public Hall was built as a multi-purpose hall in1965 at the east side of Koto City. It was one of major halls comparing with Hibiya Public Hall or Honjyo Public Hall at that time.

New Koto Public Hall (TIARA KOTO)

Over times, in December 1994, a new Koto Public Hall took over the old hall. It was reconstructed with 5 stories high and two stories in the base. The new hall was nicknamed TIARA KOTO for the outlook of the building like a tiara.

It has a big hall with 1,230 seats, a small hall with 140 seats, a rehearsal room and 5 practicing rooms. The big hall provides audience with high level sound resulting from a specific work cutting off the noises outside.

Coming up programs at TIARA KOTO

The hall has special art partnerships with Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra and Tokyo City Ballet. So, you can enjoy wide range of programs such as classical orchestra concerts, pops music, ballet, and dramas.

The hall promotes orchestration and ballet for the next young generations, as well.
We, Koto City resident can also enjoy one-coin concert in the daytime without any
reservations. The on-coin concert could be a rehearsal of classical concert program.

Ray Charles Concert Pamphlet
(Courtesy of Koto Cultural Community Foundation)

On December 18th , 1994, I happened to be one of audiences in the opening concert of TIARA KOTO, where an American great star, Ray Charles played. It was amazing and really exiting. Among his many hit songs, “Ellie, My Love” was special. It was played by Ray waving his body dynamically in front of the piano. It is unforgettable concert to me.

This song was composed by a Japanese song writer and singer, Keisuke Kuwata in 1979 and is performed by several musicians. Ray recorded it in 1989.

Why don’t you enjoy the ballad song on YouTube and visit TIARA KOTO.

(by Ben)