Benzaiten (弁才天)

Deity of water, music and eloquence, identified in Japan with Ichikishimahime and associated with wealth.

Benzaiten came to Japan from the Indian river goddess Sarasvatī, and carries water with her: her halls stand beside ponds, wells and on islands. She is associated with music, eloquence and, in the popular reading that developed later, with wealth. In Shinto terms she is commonly identified with Ichikishimahime, which is how a Buddhist figure came to be enshrined at shrines. At Koami Shrine in Nihonbashi the image rides a boat and is called the Manpuku Funanori Benzaiten; the well beside it, where visitors wash coins, is why that shrine is now widely called the Tokyo coin-washing Benten.

AIAI-assisted research. Check official sources before you travel.About

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