Seven Lucky Gods routes: seven stamps, one sheet, one week

A shichifukujin meguri (七福神めぐり) is a short walking route linking seven shrines or temples, one for each of the Seven Lucky Gods, and the point of it is a single sheet of paper. You buy the sheet at the first stop and have it stamped at all seven. What most visitors do not realise until they are standing at a locked gate is that the majority of these routes are only open for about a week — from 1 January to the 7th or the 10th — and then the stamps stop for eleven months. This guide covers which routes open when, what the sheet is, and the one major route that runs all year round.

Why the window is only a week

The tradition is tied to matsu-no-uchi (松の内), the New Year period when the pine decorations stay up — in Tokyo, the first seven days of January. Most routes open their halls for exactly that stretch and close again.

The Fukagawa route in Kōtō, Tokyo, is the clearest published example. The Kōtō City Tourism Association, which carries the route's information, gives the opening as 1 to 7 January, 9:00 to 16:30, and describes the walk as about two hours at an unhurried pace. Outside that window the seven halls are simply not issuing.

Yanaka's route, which the temples themselves describe as the oldest of the Edo seven-gods pilgrimages, is generally listed as running slightly longer, to 10 January. That extra window is worth knowing, but treat it as unconfirmed: Tōkaku-ji's own page for the route sets out the seven temples and their gods without stating a period at all, and Taitō City's official tourism page for Gokoku-in does not give one either. Every listing that gives 1–10 January is a secondary one.

What you are actually collecting

This is not the same activity as filling a goshuinchō. A seven-gods route sells you a purpose-made sheet: a shikishi (色紙), a stiff square board pre-printed with seven blank spaces, or in some places a takarabune treasure-ship board, or a scroll. You carry it round; each hall stamps its own space; the finished sheet is a wall object, not a book page.

The Kyoto route publishes its price list openly and revised it on 1 April 2024. Four items are listed at ¥500 each: the stamp book, the daigofu large paper charm (the shikishi), the scroll, and stamping alone. In other words the sheet costs ¥500 and there is a stamping fee at each of the seven stops, so budget for both rather than for a single ticket.

Tokyo routes are less transparent about money. The Fukagawa route issues a sheet and other New Year items — a lucky bamboo branch, clay bells, amulets — but no prices appear on the tourism association's page, and figures circulating on aggregator sites do not trace back to the route. The route association takes enquiries by phone on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 9:00 to 16:00. Bring cash in small notes and expect to pay per stamp.

Four routes worth planning around

The Kyoto route also shows how January gets special treatment even where the route is permanent: for January 2026 the route office extended the gold-seal issue from the single feast day to a full week, 7 to 13 January. Dates for January 2027 had not been published when this guide was checked, so treat the extension as a pattern rather than a promise.

The seven gods and what each one is for

The Fukagawa route publishes a virtue against each of its seven halls, which is the most concrete statement of what you are asking for at each stop.

The same seven gods are distributed differently on every route. On the Yanaka route the assignment runs Fukurokuju at Tōkaku-ji, Ebisu at Seiun-ji, Hotei at Shūshō-in, Jurōjin at Chōan-ji, Bishamonten at Tennō-ji, Daikokuten at Gokoku-in and Benzaiten at the Shinobazu Pond Bentendō. Gokoku-in's Daikokuten is worth a pause: Taitō City records that its painted image is said to have been a gift from Tokugawa Iemitsu, the third shogun, and that the standing wooden Daikokuten in front of it is a designated ward cultural property.

Kyoto in January: the Ebisu festival

If you are in Kyoto in early January, the Ebisu stop on the Miyako route holds its own festival, Tōka Ebisu, over five days from the 8th to the 12th. Kyoto City's official tourism body publishes the shape of it, and the hours are unusual — two of the nights do not close at all.

What people carry away is not a stamp but a kichō-zasa, a bamboo branch hung with small charms for a thriving business. The dates above are those published for January 2026; the festival is held on the same five dates each year, but the day-of-week pattern for 2027 changes and the shrine had not published it at the time of checking.

Planning a route that actually finishes

Collect first, sightsee second. The binding constraint is the 16:30 close, not the daylight. A route that takes two hours of walking takes four with queues on 2 January.

Take the sheet, not the book. If you already keep a goshuinchō, bring it anyway for ordinary stamps, but buy the route's own sheet for the seven — that is what the spaces are cut for, and at some stops it is the only thing they will stamp during the New Year rush.

Expect sheets to run out. Routes print a fixed run for the season. The later in the window you start, the more likely it is that the first hall has none left and you spend the walk hunting one.

Cash, in coins and small notes. Stamping fees are a few hundred yen per stop and card payment at a temporary New Year desk is close to unheard of.

The Japanese you'll actually use

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