SHI CHI FUKUJIN

 A HANDBOOK FOR TRAVELLERS IN JAPAN (INCLUDING FORMOSA), BY BASIL CHAMBERLAIN,F.R.G.S. AND W.B. MASON, CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE ROYAL SCOTTISH GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY AND LATE OF THE IMPERIAL  JAPANESE DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS. WITH THIRTY MAPS AND PLANS AND NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. NINTH EDITION, REVISED THROUGHOUT. LONDON. JOHN MURRAY, ALLEMARLE STREET. YOKOHAMA, SHANGHAI,- KELLY&WALSH, LIMITED-HONKONG, SINGAPORE.1913

SHICHI FUKUJIN- are THE SEVEN DEITIES OF LUCK

The seven deities, are the passengers of the Treasure Boat. They are believed to sail into the port on New Year's Eve. with a cargo of wonderful treasures,- such as the hat and coat of invisibility; the sacred master key, that opens all doors; the inexhaustible purse; the Fortunatus cup jewelsm and precious stones of all kinds. It must be a clean happy home occupied by none but good happy smiling persons which the Treasure Ship will design to visit on New Year's Day. 

ARE

 SHICHI FUKUJIN the Seven Gods of Luck namely

 1. Ebisu 

EBISU one of the Gods of Luck. He is the patron of honest labour. He bears in his hand a fishing rod and a tai fish 
October 20 is Ebisu ko or Ebisu wor shipping day on which he is remembered in every Ebisu loving home with offerings cakes and sake as well. 

In March of the ninth year of the reign of the Empress Suiko. 600 AD the illustrious Crown Prince Shotoku Taishi, who introduced Buddhism into Japan, first taught the people the art of buying and selling by holding a religious ceremony in honor of Ebisu, and dedicating a small shrine to the deity. Hence the deification of Ebisu as patron deity of all tradesmen

Indeed  Ebisu is always smiling, has a  fishing tackle in hand and  is sitting in serene happiness on the top of a rock.

 

2. Dai koku 

 DAIKOKU is the God of Wealth may be known by his rice bales. The image of Daikoku is very  popular in Japanese art, which exhibits little awe of things divine, represents these bales being nibbled at by a rat. 
 Ebisu and Daikoku are nearly always coupled, except where each is enshrined separately, The two deities are associated as closely as Damon and Pythias. Daikoku is a Hindu deity of the Buddhist faith and in color he is as black as the ebony. The name of Daikoku is Mahakara in Sanskrit was his original name and it meant in one interpretation to be a god of time and consequently of wholesale destruction. He was represented as a gigantic figure with a black face in which three huge eyes glared, with eight shoulders, each  shoulder bearing something horrible such as a death's head, a sword, a trident, the head of a hungry demon, etc,;= all significant of death and destruction. Daikoku, however is regarded as the protecting god of farmers and is universaliy venerated all over Japan.

In most pictures of Daikoku is shown a little mouse nibbling at one of the rice bales. In fact, the mouse is understood as the  Daikoku's fond disciple.

Daikoku has come to be depicted as sharing something of the physical features of Okuni Nushi being short of stature and carry ing a huge sack full of invaluable treasures on his shoulders. Daikoku sits on a couple of rice bales, bearing the usudenokodzuchi,- or the lucky hammer,- from which he can shake out anything on earth that human heart desires. 

3.Benten 

BENTEN or BENZAITEN(please, remember the Empire of the Byzance). Benten is the one of the Seven Deities of Luck. She is often represented riding on a serpent or dragon, whence is perhaps, the sacred character, attributed in many localities to snakes. Benten's shrines are mostly situated on islands. 

Benzaiten or Benten for short was also the deity of  the Hindu origin and said to be the guardian deity of some sacred river in Central India. However, she is firmly considered to be the Japanese lady who with Ebisu constitutes two representatives of Japan. Benten is a goddess of eloquence as the word ben seems to suggest and also of art and the accomplishments and of victory, wealth and of almost everything dear to the human heart except love.  Benten is an unmarried maiden and is jealous of the love of others and so much so that it is said that a man or woman visiting her temple with wife or husband should never expect to have his or her prayer answered. Some prominent persons of Japan who because of their devotions to Benten remained legally unmarried all their lives, because of their devotions to Benten. 
In all Shrines of Benten stand near the water's edge, sea, lake or river. Water seems to be the element in which Benten seems to thrive best in her original character as mistress of a pond. In fact there is a belief that Benten's being in reality only a human incarnation of a fearful sea serpent, who though she resumes her natural form of a serpent while under the water, and takes the guise of a beautiful maiden when appearing in the human world.

The roots of the Bentent cult seem traceable to the mythological tale of the beautiful daughter of the Dragon King, who wedded Yama-sachi-hiko or the Mountain-Lucky-Deity, but who was found later in the terrible shape of "a dragon eight fathoms long". 

Benten and sea serpents are undoubtedly related and in almost every district where a Benten Shrine is, the snakes.- large and small,- are treated with remarkable kindliness. if not reverence.  

 Benten  worshippers are found among the young maidens. who wish by her grace to improve in sewing music and other female accomplishments. As to her chaste soul nobody has ever doubted for though she is the only female occupant of the Treasure  Boat there. and there has been no talk of liaison with any of her fellow passengers. 

 Benten sits in her resplendent robe, playing on the biwa,- her favorite instrument. Benten is  Venus with the soul of Vesta. She represents art literature and music.

4. Fukurokuju 

FUKUROKUJU  is one of the Gods of Luck. He is distinguished by a preter-naturally long head, and typifies longevity and wisdom. 
Fukurokujin is often called Fukurokuju, and some people say that he is an aggregate of three different deities rolled into one viz the deities , i.e. of fuku -"happiness"- roku -"riches" and ju-'longevity".

Now Fukurokujin is pictured as a man of short trunk and shorter legs, but with a preternaturally long head, even longer than his legs. He was a Chinese Taoist modelled after the character of Confucius's great disciple Roshi. It is also said that he is one of the Sen-nin Chinese philosophers who could exist without eating any food, being able to live on the mists of the heavens and the dews of the earth. Like other great Sen-nin he could prophecy all events which are to happen in unseen future. He could not only live as long as he liked ,but also resuscitate men as dead as a door nail,. He went about the world performing marvellous miracles to the great improvement of mankind 

5.Bishamon

BISHAMON (Sanskrit Vâisramana)explained in Eitel's Hand-book of Chinese Buddhism as the God of Wealth. He has been adopted by the Japanese as one of their Seven Gods of Luck, with the special characteristic of impersonating war. Hence he is represented as clad in armour, and he is bearing a spear, as well as a toy pagoda. He is the god of militarism and army and and is worshipped if you wish to thrive by the power of arms or gain victories on fields of  battles. Originally he was a god of riches as Daikoku and came to Japan from Hindu panehton, his name being Vaircramana in Sanskrit. He was  a Brahman but like every soldier statesman he seems to have no scruple in changing his religion as frequently as it suits the purposes of his warlike statecraft. In China via which he came to Japan he is worshipped as a Buddhist and a god of war, and now that he has joined the Treasure Boat he consents to being deified in a Shinto fashion as witness the Bishamon temple at Kagurazaka Tokyo. which observes its fete day on all days of the Tiger as the days of Bishamon,

Bishamon carries in one of his hands a toy pagoda. Bishamon  is the religious missionary and combined with the political ambassador. Indeed Bishamon stands bolt upright his eyes of fire rivetted on the earth below as if determined to conquer the whole world through the twofold virtues of his spear and pagoda. 
He is also known as Tamonten -"Much Hearing God"- and under this name he is treated more or less in his original capacity as a god of wealth. He is represented as having a wonder ful pair of ears a dirty body and lame limping legs all which signify that wealth is filthy stuff and comes at a slow pace and to those who know how to listen Tamonten is one of the favorite of Buddha himself, often guarding the wherein his image is enshrined. 

Kisshoten, the fair goddess of charity, who was once included in the list of the Seven Deities but who has since either left the boat or been ejected from it. She is a pure Buddhist maiden represented in various bizarre forms sometimes forming the hinder part of Bishamon himself ,

6. Jurōjin 

JUROJIN is one of the Gods of Luck often represented as accompanied by a stag and a crane.
Jurojin is a god of long evity and he is depicted as a very venerable man with a long snow white beard down his breast, almost to his feet, and carrying shaku -holy staff,- to which is tied a scroll, containing all the wisdom of the world. He is accompanied either by a crane, a stag or a tortoise.

He is a merry, smiling deity, and a copious drinker of sake. In fact he can drink any quantity of sake without being any the worse for it . Once the Emperor invited him to a feast and made him drink as much sake as he liked and lo he drank one koku or nearly 40 gallons, and in the morning woke up perfectly sober and made some wonderful prophecies.

Jurojin would walk about in the guise of a mendicant, begging for food and when anyone gave him drink would tap his head with a gleeful gesture, and it was in this condition that he first attracted the attention of the Emperor; and he was finally identified to be a great Taoist teacher, who had discovered the secret of living as long as he liked and of dissolving himself whenever he liked. While he lived he drank sake and talked wise things and finally went off in a manner which nobody knew.  

7. Hotei 

HOTEL one of the Seven Gods of Luck typifies contentment and good nature He is represented in art with an enormous naked abdomen.
Hotei was no god, but merely a Chinese priest. A very great Zen priest;- he was as much talked about in China while and after he lived as Diogenes was in Greece. Instead of a tub Hotei possessed a large cotton bag which wasto him his earthly all-in-all. What there was in his bag nobody knew, but he would put in whatever he had left,- unused crumbs of food, and all other things. He had no house in which to sleep at night.He had no house, but when he felt sleepy, he would lie down just where he happened to be,- be it by the road side on the bridge or in the marketplace,- and when he awoke,- he would arise and walk off possessing the whole heaven and earth as his own. 

Hotei embodies largeness of soul, and perfect contentm which perchance may be regarded as essentials of true felicity on earth.