Benzaiten, the Japanese goddess of water, music and love

Benzaiten, familiarly called Benten, is the only female figure among the Seven Gods of Fortune of Japan. She plays the biwa, the Japanese lute, protects music, eloquence, the arts and waters, and is associated with wealth and love. Her story, however, begins far from Japan, on the banks of a sacred river of Vedic India, and crosses the whole of Asia together with Buddhism.

From Sarasvati to Benzaiten

At the origin is Sarasvati, the river goddess celebrated in the Rigveda and later worshipped in India as the deity of wisdom, speech and music. Buddhism welcomed her among the protective deities of the Dharma: the Golden Light Sutra, a Mahayana text widely read in East Asia, devotes an entire chapter to her. Through China the cult reached Japan, where her name was written with characters denoting eloquence and talent.

In Japan Benzaiten took on two main aspects. In one she has eight arms and holds weapons, as a warrior protector; in the other, more familiar, she is an elegant lady playing the biwa. In the Middle Ages she merged with Ugajin, a harvest deity represented as a serpent with a human face, and the white serpent became one of her sacred animals, together with the dragon.

The sacred islands and shrines

The cult of Benzaiten is linked to water, and her shrines often stand on islands, by lakes or near springs. Three are considered the most important: Enoshima, a small island in Sagami Bay near Kamakura; Chikubushima, in Lake Biwa, not far from Kyoto; and Itsukushima, on the island of Miyajima, famous for the gate that seems to float on the sea. In some lists third place goes instead to Tenkawa, in the Nara region.

In Kamakura the Zeniarai Benzaiten shrine, literally Benzaiten who washes money, preserves a popular custom: washing coins in the water of its spring, in the traditional hope of seeing them multiply. After 1868, with the official separation of Shinto and Buddhism, many Benzaiten shrines were turned into Shinto shrines and the goddess was identified with the deity Ichikishimahime.

Love and jealousy

As a goddess of beauty and the arts, Benzaiten was also invoked in matters of love. On Enoshima, in the island's octagonal hall, a famous wooden statue of the goddess playing the biwa is kept, known as the naked Benzaiten, which tradition links to the devotion of musicians and female entertainers of the Edo period.

A very widespread popular belief of uncertain origin holds, on the other hand, that couples who visit a Benzaiten shrine together, or go boating on the lakes consecrated to her, will end up breaking up, because the goddess is said to be jealous of lovers. It is told, for example, of the pond in Inokashira Park in Tokyo. It is a legend, but it shows how alive the goddess's figure still is.

From the river goddess of Vedic India to the biwa-playing lady of Japanese shrines, Benzaiten shows how a deity can travel thousands of kilometres and many centuries, changing name and appearance without losing her bond with water, music and grace. In her shrines, even today, the sound of water and the sound of prayers blend together.