Photo= Bank staff counting the money offered during the first three days of the New Year (January 4, Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine, Fushimi Ward, Kyoto)

Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine, known for its deity of business prosperity, in Fushimi Ward, Kyoto, held the annual New Year's event, "Saisen-biraki" or opening the offertory boxes, on January 4. Bank staff carefully counted the money placed in the offertory boxes located at approximately 50 sites in the main shrine and at the auxiliary and subsidiary shrines during the first three days of January.

At 9:00 a.m., the counting started in a room marked with Shimenawa, or plaited ropes, in the shrine office and the notes and coins were scattered onto a white cloth. In addition to Japanese yen, there were many banknotes from Asian countries, including Chinese yuan, Vietnamese dong, Thai baht, and others, as well as U.S. dollars. There were also checks, lottery tickets, and betting tickets, with lucky numbers printed on them, such as "11104" which can be read as "good year" or "29451" which can be read as "may good luck come."

The shrine said, "As the first three days were blessed with fine weather, there were apparently more visitors than usual. There were also many foreign visitors. We think they experienced Japanese culture through Hatsumoude, or the first visit to shrine."

True to the shrine's reputation of having the highest number of visitors in western Japan, it will take approximately five days to calculate the amount of money offered during the first three days.