On January 24 and
25 each year, usokae shrine event is
held at Kemeido Tenjin Shrine. People come to the
shrine to swap last-year's misfortune for new-year's good luck.
They put an old uso-dori back to the shrine and buy new
one .
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| Uso dori |
Uso-dori is a wood-carved bird that originated from a real bird uso, a bull finch, because it chirps
like whistle-blowing. People in old days called its chirp uso. Uso in Japanese also means lie, invention, untruth or joke. People wanted to think last-year's misfortune as uso (untruth) and wished to put a hope
of good luck on a new uso-dori.
Usokae event originated in early 19th century. At first people carved their own uso-dori, came to the shrine and swapped them with other people in front of the shrine's alter.
Soon people
chanted 'let's swap our uso' and
exchanged uso-dori in each other's
sleeves. Later they began to exchange them with no chants. But there are always
some bad guys who make most use of this chance for pick-pocketing. People at
that time kept their valuables in kimono
sleeves.
So swapping in the
sleeves was banned. Instead, people began to put the old uso-dori back to the shrine and buy new one as we do it today.
 |
| Kameido Tenjin Shrine |
I went to the
Kameido Tenjin Shrine on January 25 and bought an uso-dori and prayed in front of the shrine alter.
What did I pray
for?
It's my secret.
by H.N.
We plan to have a tour to enjoy Japanese plum at Kameido tenjin shrine.
Please take a look at this site to join the tour with us !
