Tori no Ichi at Otori Shrine, Asakusa

The days of the rooster come round every twelve days in the old zodiac calendar, so November has two of them and, in some years, three. On each one Otori Shrine in Asakusa holds its fair for a full day: it opens with the first drum at midnight and closes at midnight. The shrine enshrines Ame-no-Hiwashi-no-Mikoto and Yamato Takeru. Its own account is that Yamato Takeru stopped here to pray for victory on his eastern campaign, and on the way home hung a kumade, a rake, on the pine in front of the shrine to celebrate. That day was a day of the rooster in November, and it became the shrine's annual festival. The shrine says the fair was already busy in the 1750s and 1760s. Today the kumade is what people come for: a bamboo rake hung with charms, bought for luck and good business. Buyers look round the stalls first and then bargain. By custom the amount knocked off went back to the seller as a tip, and the sale is closed with a ritual hand clap. Kirizansho, rice cakes flavoured with sugar and sansho pepper, are still sold at the fair. Part of its fame, the shrine says, came from the Shin-Yoshiwara pleasure quarter just to the east, which was opened to visitors on the festival day. There is also a saying that years with a third day of the rooster have many fires; the shrine admits nobody really knows where it comes from.