Taito City Culture Guide Book, New Year's celebration

Treasure pictures - pray for good fortune in the first dream during the New Year's holiday.

A demonstration of how to make treasure pictures and a picture workshop were held by Yasutaka Awaji, a management cooperator of the museum, on January 2 at Taito City Shitamachi Museum or Old Town Museum. The event attracted many visitors who celebrated the New Year. (New Year, 2008)

Many foreign tourists also visited the Ueno and Asakusa areas during the New Year's holiday. At Taito City Shitamachi Museum, they appreciated a variety of celebratory practices from the Edo Period.

Otakara-e or the treasure picture

The Seven Deities of Good Fortune (the God of fishery and commerce, God of wealth, God of Treasure, Goddess of Fortune, God of Contentment, God of Wealth and Longevity and God of Longevity) and the palindrome "Nakakiyo no, To no Nefuri no, Mina Mesame, Naminorifune no, Oto no Yoki Kana," (a phrase that is the same when you spell it backwards) are depicted on Otakara-e or the treasure picture. The picture is a good-luck token which people place under their pillows and pray for good fortune on the night of January 2. Peddlers used to go from place to place to sell treasure pictures, crying, "Otakara! Otakara!"

(Otakara-e or the treasure picture peddler' cry can be heard on the page of Taito City Shitamachi Museum.)

Round rice cake made of ceramic - the historical background of the wartime is reflected (around 1943)

Stacked boxes made in the early Show Period and spiced sake utensils made in the Taisho Period (Picture: Haruna Totsuka)

Gift envelopes and pieces of traditional paper for wrapping a gift, which were made in the period between Meiji and Taisho [Click to enlarge the picture.]