Encyclopedia of Goddesses: Japanese Goddess

Showing posts with label Japanese Goddess. Show all posts

Yuki Onne: Japanese death goddess

Yuki Onne is the Snow Maiden, a goddess of winter and blizzards.

She is the betrayed and scorned wife, left with a cold, empty heart after her husband's betrayal.

She gives frigid death to those suffering from the coldness of winter as well as those turned cold by bitterness, lulling them to an endless slumber with a song.

She bestows a painless death and leads the soul to the afterlife.

~Kiran Atma

Yaya Zakurai is a Japanese spring goddess.

Every year, Yaya Zakurai gives seasonal spring to the soil.

She remains chaste until the flowers blossom, at which point she takes numerous humans and gods as lovers.

The cherry tree and blooms signify Yaya Zakurai.

~Kiran Atma

Yama No Kami is a Japanese hunt goddess.

Yama No Kami is the mother of seasonal time and the guardian of women.

She is the ruler of the mountains and woods, and hunters revere her for providing them with game.

~Kiran Atma

Wakahirume: Japanese deity of weaving.

Amaterasu's favorite weaving maiden is Wakahirume.

She has connections to fate and time, as well as the ability to create dreams and visions.

She died when her weaving shuttle punctured her vagina, symbolizing the death of innocence and maidenhood after sexual intercourse.

~Kiran Atma

Uzume: The goddess of laughter in Japan.

Uzume, the goddess of happiness and femininity, is a full-figured goddess.

She is the personification of energy in motion, and she is the source of light and hope.

When Amaterasu hides herself in a cave, it is Uzume who tempts her out with a lewd, comical dance.

She considers bells and dancing to be holy.

~Kiran Atma

Kamui Fuchi is the Japanese deity of the hearth.

Kamui Fuchi is the Ainu people of Japan's ancestress and tribe mother.

As the fire of the hearth, she protects the portal between the natural and spiritual worlds, insisting that it never be totally extinguished.

When her petitioners feed her rice, mugwort, and beer, she defends them from bad spirits as the "Lady of the Home."

~Kiran Atma

Izanami is a Japanese goddess of death and life.

Izanami is the goddess of the land and rich soil, the place where all gods and goddesses were born.

She and her companion, Izangi, descended from heaven to bring the world into being.

Izanami was burnt to death when she gave birth to the god of fire, who turned her into an unattractive old lady.

Izanami, no longer appropriate for the natural world, descended into the underworld and became the goddess of death.

~Kiran Atma

Inari is a Japanese deity of food.

Inari is represented as both a man and a woman.

Inari is shown as a young lady with long, flowing hair as a goddess, and as an elderly man with a beard as a deity.

She is the patroness of farmers and traders, as well as the goddess of rice.

She bestows wealth and success to those who respect her.

~Kiran Atma

Chup Kamui is Japan's chastity goddess.

Chup Kamui was the Ainu people's moon goddess, but after spending one night overseeing the earth and witnessing humanity's immoral and lustful conduct, she asked her brother, the sun, to swap places with her.

She was transformed into the sun, and he was transformed into the moon.

She guards women from unfaithful acts and is a symbol of modesty and purity.

Japanese goddess of love, Benten, sometimes known as Benzaiten.

Benten is the ruler of love, music, and the arts, and is shown as a lovely lady with eight limbs riding a dragon.

She is the cleansing force that shields humans from the darkness of the material world as a sea and water goddess.

Benten is the patroness of artists, dancers, musicians, and geishas, and she encourages the judicious use of skills to their full potential.

Her celebration, which brings good luck and romance, is held during the summer solstice in the numerous shrines that still exist in Japan.

Benzaiten (shinjitai: or; kyjitai:, or, lit. "goddess of eloquence"), also known as Benten (shinjitai:; kyjitai: /), is widely worshipped as a Japanese Buddhist goddess descended mostly from Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of speech, the arts, and learning, with some qualities derived from Durga, the warrior goddess.

Benzaiten is the only female of the seven fortunate gods, and she is as much a Buddhist as she is a Shinto deity.

Actors, airline hostesses, artists, beauticians, composers, dancers, designers, directors, dramatists, entertainers, gamblers, models, musicians, painters, photographers, sculptors, sword makers, and writers are among the jobs Chiba associated with her.

Author Brian Bocking compares Benzaiten to Ichikishima-hime-no-mikoto, the principal deity of the Enoshima Jinja's three major temples.

Benzaiten is named after the Hindu goddess Sarasvati, and it is derived from Chinese translations of Buddhist sutras.

Sarasvati is the Hindu Goddess of wisdom, music, and the arts, and she is claimed to have been the wife of Brahma and Vishnu, who along with Siva make up Hinduism's sacred trinity.

Sarasvati is first mentioned in the Rig Veda, one of Hinduism's four holy books, which was compiled between 1500 and 1000 BC.

This phrase from Hymn 41 is arguably the most appropriate in the Benzaiten context:

Sarasvat, greatest Mother, best of Rivers, best of Goddesses We have no notoriety, as it were, and dear Mother, grant us renown.

All generations have a home in thee, Sarasvat, heavenly.

Benzaiten Jinja in Japan are virtually all located near the sea, rivers, or lakes, or have their own in-ground lakes.

The next sentence from Hymn 61 makes a more dubious allusion to Banzaiten:

Yes, this exquisite Sarasvat, with her golden road, is dreadful.

Our eulogy refers to you as a foe-slayer.

Sarasvati's "foe-slayer" might be understood as a reference to Sarasvati's killing of Vritra, the Hindu mythology's three-headed serpent/snake.

However, there is no further mention of this, and the conventional story puts Indra as Vritra's killer.

The three-headed serpent/snake transforms into a white snake in the Benzaiten mythology, which acts as her messenger.

The Kami-shinmei-tenso Jinja is a nice example of this.

The Most Important Shrines Dedicated To Goddess Banzaiten

Enoshima Jinja    江島神社
Kanagawa-ken, Fujisawa-shi, Enoshima 2-3-8
神奈川県藤沢市江の島2-3-8

Zeniarai Benzaiten Ugafuku jinja 銭洗弁財天宇賀福神社
Kanagawa-ken, Kamakura-shi, Sasuke 2-25-16
神奈川県鎌倉市佐助2-25-16

Kiyomizu Benzaiten Sha 清水弁財天社
Nagano-ken, Saku-shi, Iwamurada
長野県佐久市岩村田

Tenkawa DaiBenzaiten Sha 天河大辯財天社
Nara-ken, Yoshino-gun, Tenkawa-mura Tsubo-no-uchi 107
奈良県吉野郡天川村坪内107

The Enoshima Island in Sagami Bay, the Chikubu Island in Lake Biwa, and the Itsukushima Island in the Seto Inland Sea (Japan's Three Great Benzaiten Shrines) are all shrines dedicated to Benzaiten, and she and a five-headed dragon are the central figures of the Enoshima Engi, a history of the shrines on Enoshima written by the Japanese Buddhist monk K According to Kkei, Benzaiten is the third daughter of Munetsuchi's dragon-king, who is known in Sanskrit as Anavatapta, the lake that is at the heart of the globe according to an old Buddhist cosmological theory.

Shrine pavilions called benten-d or benten-sha, or even whole Shinto temples, such as Kamakura's Zeniarai Benzaiten Ugafuku Shrine or Nagoya's Kawahara Shrine, might be devoted to her.

Sarasvati to Benzaiten, from India to Japan

Sarasvati occurs in two sutras translated into Chinese: the Sutra of Golden Light (, Konkmy-ky) and the Lotus Sutra (, Myh-rengei-ky).

The former devotes a whole chapter (8) to her and is essentially a lengthy, drawn-out eulogy.

Her presence in the Lotus Sutra is referenced in almost every Benzaiten-related publication on the Internet, but I have been unable to locate it.

It's unknown when she initially emerged in Japan, although it was probably definitely during the 6th and 8th centuries AD.

Much of the Sutra of Golden Light, perhaps reflecting China's Confucian history, emphasizes the necessity for a knowledgeable ruler, and it was this component, defender of the state and people, with which Benzaiten was linked when she first arrived in Japan.

Originally, her name was spelled as 辯才天.

The first of these three characters denotes eloquence in speaking, and the second, gift.

Her name started to be recorded as she grew more naturalized, finally becoming one of the Seven Lucky Gods, 弁財天.

The first character of this name,弁, is a simplified version of and so signifies no meaningful difference, but the second character,財, is completely distinct from 才and indicates wealth or riches, which is an admirably appropriate characteristic for a deity of luck.

Benzaiten is usually typically shown playing a biwa, which is a short-necked lute, and Lake Biwa, Japan's biggest freshwater lake, is one of her shrines.

Benzaiten was worshipped in Japan from the sixth to the ninth century, mostly via Classical Chinese translations of the Golden Light Sutra (Sanskrit: Suvaraprabhsa Stra), which has a portion dedicated to her.

Benzaiten became associated or even conflated with a number of Buddhist and local deities from the medieval period onwards,

including the goddess Kisshten (the Buddhist version of the Hindu Lakshmi, whose role as goddess of fortune was eventually ascribed to Benzaiten in popular belief),
the snake god Ugajin (the combined form of the two being known as 'Uga Benzaiten'),
and the kami Ichikishimahime.

She was also associated with nagas, dragons, and snakes because to her role as a water goddess.

She was later adored as a bestower of monetary prosperity and was included as one of the Seven Lucky Gods, in addition to being a patron of music and the arts (Shichifukujin).

In Japanese art, Goddess Benzaiten is portrayed in a variety of ways.

She is often represented brandishing a sword and a wish-granting diamond (cintmai), similar to how Saraswati is pictured in Indian art with a veena.

Meanwhile, Durga's iconography is said to have inspired an iconographic formula depicting Benzaiten with eight arms wielding various weapons (based on the Golden Light Sutra).

Ugajin (a human-headed white snake) may also be seen above her head as Uga Benzaiten.

Finally, she is sometimes shown with the head of a serpent or a dragon.

Benzaiten is a Shinto female kami with the name Ichikishima-hime-no-mikoto.

Tendai Buddhists believe she is the essence of the kami Ugajin, whose effigy she sometimes wears on her head with a torii.

As a result, she is often referred to as Uga Benzaiten or Uga Benten.

Su, (typically read in Japanese as so) is the bja or seed syllable used to express Benzaiten in Japanese esoteric Buddhism, written in Siddha script.

Benzaiten's Mantras:

Sanskrit: Oṃ Sarasvatyai svāhā

Japanese: On Sorasobateiei sowaka

Hiragana: おんそらそばていえいそわか[25]

For more refer to my list Of Hindu, Buddhist, And Jain (South Asian) Goddesses From India, Nepal, And Tibet.

~Kiran Atma

References And Further Reading:

Ludvik, Catherine (2007). Sarasvatī: Riverine Goddess of Knowledge. From the Manuscript-carrying Vīṇā-player to the Weapon-wielding Defender of the Dharma. Brill. pp. 1–3.
Kinsley, David (1998). Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. pp. 10–13.
Ludvik (2007). pp. 35-39.
Faure, Bernard (2015). Protectors and Predators: Gods of Medieval Japan, Volume 2. University of Hawaii Press. p. 164.
Faure (2015). pp. 164-165.
Ludvik (2007). p. 48.
Griffith, Ralph T.H. (trans.). "Rig Veda, Book 6: Hymn LXI. Sarasvatī". Sacred Texts. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
Griffith, Ralph T.H. (trans.). "Rig Veda, Book 10: Hymn CXXV. Vāk". Sacred Texts. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
"金光明最勝王經第7卷". CBETA Chinese Electronic Tripiṭaka Collection (漢文大藏經). Retrieved 2022-05-21.
Faure (2015). pp. 165-166.
Ludvik, Catherine (2004). "A Harivaṃśa Hymn in Yijing's Chinese Translation of the Sutra of Golden Light". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 124 (4): 707–734.
"AryAstavaH - hymn to Arya". Mahabharata Resources Page. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
Ludvik (2007). pp. 265-267.
Faure (2015). pp. 168-169.
"大毘盧遮那成佛神變加持經". CBETA Chinese Electronic Tripiṭaka Collection (漢文大藏經). Retrieved 2022-05-21.
The Vairocanābhisaṃbodhi Sūtra(PDF). BDK English Tripiṭaka Series. Translated by Rolf W. Giebel. Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai; Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research. 2005. pp. 33, 141.
Faure (2015). p. 166.
"大毘盧遮那成佛神變加持經第1卷". CBETA Chinese Electronic Tripiṭaka Collection (漢文大藏經). Retrieved 2022-05-21.
"大毘盧遮那成佛神變加持經第2卷". CBETA Chinese Electronic Tripiṭaka Collection (漢文大藏經). Retrieved 2022-05-21.
Pye, Michael (2013). Strategies in the study of religions. Volume two, Exploring religions in motion. Boston: De Gruyter. p. 279. ISBN 9781614511915. OCLC 852251932.
"大毘盧遮那成佛神變加持經第4卷". CBETA Chinese Electronic Tripiṭaka Collection (漢文大藏經). Retrieved 2022-05-21.
Bocking, Brian (1997). A Popular Dictionary of Shinto - 'Benzaiten'. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7007-1051-5.
Itō, Satoshi: "Ugajin". Encyclopedia of Shinto, Kokugakuin University, retrieved on August 15, 2011
Ludvik, Catherine. “Uga-Benzaiten: The Goddess and the Snake.” Impressions, no. 33, 2012, pp. 94–109. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/42597966.
"弁財天 (Benzaiten)". Flying Deity Tobifudō (Ryūkō-zan Shōbō-in Official Website). Retrieved 2022-05-22.
Faure, Bernard (2015). Protectors and Predators: Gods of Medieval Japan, Volume 2. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0824857721.
Kinsley, David (1998). Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. ISBN 978-8-1208-0394-7.
Ludvik, Catherine (2004). "A Harivaṃśa Hymn in Yijing's Chinese Translation of the Sutra of Golden Light". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 124 (4): 707–734.
Ludvik, Catherine (2007). Sarasvatī: Riverine Goddess of Knowledge. From the Manuscript-carrying Vīṇā-player to the Weapon-wielding Defender of the Dharma. Brill. ISBN 978-9-0474-2036-1.