Tokyo's 1,000-Year-Old Fukutoku Shrine Draws Concert Ticket Prayers

Fukutoku Shrine, a more-than-1,000-year-old Shinto shrine in Tokyo's Nihonbashi district, has become a destination for fans praying for concert tickets. Originally dedicated to the deity Inari for abundant harvests, the shrine gained a reputation for luck after samurai Tokugawa Ieyasu patronized it in 1590 and allowed lotteries. In the 1990s, as J-Pop exploded with bands like Glay, Speed, and Morning Musume, fans began praying for concert tickets, believing the shrine's lottery luck could extend to the online multi-step lottery system used for major concerts in Japan. Visitors purify themselves at the temizuya, bow, clap, and pray before the altar, then purchase ema wooden cards (500-1,000 yen) to write requests for bands like BTS and ZeroBaseOne. During the pandemic, devotion continued, and after restrictions lifted, crowds were so large that the street had to be closed. Scholars and priests, including 22nd-generation priest Taishi Kato, affirm that praying for temporal desires like concert tickets is permissible if done with sincere respect. Krista Rogers of SoraNews24 shared that after praying at Fukutoku, she successfully obtained tickets to see her oshi Ayumi Hamasaki.