Another Ganesha connection in Japan

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This is an exerpt from the book, "Shinto and it's Festivals" by Denny

Sargent:

 

 

Chapter 15: Daigoku

The Spirit of Japanese Wealth

(The Study of a Kami-sama)

 

(Note: Special thanks to Professor Ueda, Ph.D., Kokugakuin University)

 

 

Shopping in Japan often entails visiting many small neighborhood

stores, and in almost every store, tucked away somewhere near the

cash register, there sits a small smiling idol. A visit to the

offices of any large Bucho (corporate manager) will usually reveal a

nicer version of the same god, often sitting amidst trophies within a

glass case. This happy god is also the focus of devotion at Kanda

Myojin Shrine, one of the three most important shrines in Tokyo which

is, not coincidentally, situated right in the heart of the business

district. His black face also gazes out from the center of

Kiyomizudera Temple, one of the oldest and most famous Japanese

temples located in Kyoto.

 

The god Daigoku is usually shown as a squat, rotund man. He wears

a jaunty cap, like a beret, and carries over his left shoulder a huge

sack. In his right upraised hand he holds a stout wooden hammer. He

is very often standing on several barrel-like casks of rice. He is

always smiling a huge grin and there is usually a rat at his feet,

looking up at his face.

 

This rather hedonistic looking god is probably the most popular

god in Japan and though his "cult" (if it can said to be

that) is

widespread, it is not particularly fanatical or devout. The

significance of Daigoku lies rather in the fact that he has become

the ever present mascot for a new and prosperous Japan, the archetype

of this successful "nation of samurai-merchants."

 

All this did not come easy for Daigoku, formally known as

Daigoku-Sama. His history actually begins in two places and he is

something of a synchronous deity. In this he actually represents the

religious history of Japan, a history that is marked by the

introduction of a foreign faith, Buddhism, and it's eventual

integration with the native religion of Japan.

 

It is an accepted, though often confusing thing, that due to the

manner that Chinese characters were adopted into Japanese, two words

can have different spellings yet sound exactly the same in that

language. "Daigoku" is one such word, and as Buddhism and

Shinto

intermingled, so did the identity of these two originally disparate

gods become one.

 

Kami are often called to "gods" or "spirits,"

yet they are both

and neither. Kami are forces or powers that may reside in natural

objects or not, but they always elicit awe. In fact, Shinto is not

really much of a religion, it is more of an acceptance and

recognition that powers exist, they can help and harm, a beneficial

relationship can be forged with them and that they may have a variety

of origins. Many Kami were agricultural in origin. and so,

apparently, was Daigoku.

 

It can be read as "Dai-go-ku," but can also be read as

Ookuni-

Mushi-no-Mikoto, the name of a particularly old Kami. This Kami

originated as an agricultural Spirit in what is now Kyushu as the

representative power of the land upon which the tribe existed. The

actual Japanese characters correlate to "Big", "Country", "Master"

and "Life." The meaning is difficult to translate, but it

encompasses the ideas "nation,tribal property," "homeland"

and "crop-land". The rice producing low-lands, to the agricultural

Japanese, meant life, and Ookuni-Mushi-No-Mikoto (sometimes

called "Daigoku") was one of the most important Kami associated with

agricultural powers and with the wealth of the land. Another set of

characters that can be read as "Dai go ku" is quite different, the

kanji of which translates to "Big,Black," and "Lord".

 

Combined, you have the name of this particular Kami, and though

one might think that "Black" in this case somehow relates to the

color of the earth, it's not so. This Daigoku came from India via

China and was brought by Buddhist priests as a guardian god when the

Buddhist faith entered Japan under the auspices of the Prince Shotoku

around 600 A.D.. During the centuries that followed, Buddhism and

Shinto became inextricably meshed together, Kami became identified

with Boddhisattvas, Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples were often

built together and even the doctrines, rituals and priesthoods became

intertwined. Buddhism has always accepted the deities of it's local

as "guardians" or subordinate powers to the Buddha and the Dharma,

Japan was no exception. Yet the peaceful Buddhist invasion of Japan

also brought many previously assimilated "guardian deities" with it

and, ironically, spread their cults to Japan. Several of these are

Indian in origin and some are Chinese. The most famous example of

this are the very well known "Seven Lucky Gods" of Japan. One of

these, Benten, is honored all over Japan as the patroness of the

Arts, yet, in fact, she was originally the Indian Goddess Sarasvati.

Another of the these gods is, of course, Daigoku.

 

Several sources state that this Daigoku was actually a form of

Mahakala, and there are some very odd statues in Japan of Daigoku

that are fierce, have many arms and in several ways resemble the

Tibetan Mahakala. Yet others point out that the most widely

worshipped form of the god, as a Jolly rotund prosperity Kami, show

hints that he originally was the Indian god Ganesh, the elephant

headed lord of wealth, sometimes called the "Black Lord." Be it as

it may, in China he was worshipped as the god of wealth and

prosperity, something that the Buddhists entering Japan probably felt

was a good thing to bring with them.

 

These most important attributes of the Kami of wealth and

prosperity, formed the link between the two "Daigoku" that in turn

became the Japanese Daigoku we see today worshipped in almost every

shrine and temple. The key to the union of the two into the one is

the relationship between rice and money, which, in Japan, are also

synonymous in many ways.

 

In Japan, rice is literally life, and though the Japanese can

certainly import any food they wish, they are almost fanatical about

only eating rice grown in their own country. It is the staple food of

most Japanese, even today, and during most of Japanese history an

overwhelming majority of Japanese were rice farmers. Rice and rice

products continue to be the most common and important offerings at

all Shinto shrines and in all Shinto ceremonies, including the "great

offering" of the first harvest of rice that will signal the beginning

of the enthronement of the new Emperor of Japan in early November

this year.

 

 

For most of the long and complex history of Japan, rice was not

only the staple food of the populace and a source of religious awe,

it was also the principle medium of trade and payment. The standard

unit of coinage was one ryo, and this was usually related to it's

worth as a comparable amount of rice. In other words, even if you

had some rarely used gold or silver coins, their chief value was in

how much rice they were worth. The common unit of rice, a hyo, was a

medium sized barrel-like container of rice akin to a bushel. Most

major economic transactions, whether it was tenants paying Lords,

Lords paying Samurai or people paying taxes, took the form of

exchanges of numbers of hyo of rice. The power and wealth of a feudal

lord or Daimyo was measured in how many koku he commanded. This was

the amount of rice that could be grown on the land he held sway over

every year.

 

During the Edo period, a time when Japan was totally isolated

and rigidly stratified, this economic system continued. It was only

natural that the rice merchants, the middle-men of this important

commodity, would form the nascent middle class. Under the Shogunate,

merchants were considered the lowest class, yet they continually had

the most wealth, in the form of rice and later, coined money. The

Samurai class had prestige but, as is not so commonly known, they

were paid a fixed and miserly allotment of hyo of rice per month to

keep them loyal to their lords. What happened was that the two

classes intermarried and each gained what the other didn't have,

wealth for one, status for the other. This new class came to the fore

during the Meiji period, the time when Japan's isolation ended at the

turn of the century when the Emperor Meiji sought to create a modern

industrial state. He called upon this newly respectable samurai-

merchant class to fill lead the way in creating a kind of state

capitalist economy. Though this system quickly transcended all use of

rice as money, the association between the two was, and still is,

quite strong. The luckiest coin in Japan is the 5 yen coin. It has a

hole in the center, is considered a lucky charm in and of itself, is

considered the most auspicious offering to toss in the money box at

shrines and temples and, of course, has a sheath of rice imprinted on

it.

During all this time, rising along with the merchant class, was

the smiling Lord Daigoku whose still stands on several hyo of rice,

but whose bag now contains gold coins, not grain. Besides the hyo of

rice he stands upon and his sack of gold coins, Daigoku has two other

symbols that are associated with him and are found all over Japan,

the hammer he holds and the rat at his feet.

 

Legend states that the hammer he holds up high has several

purposes. Mythically, he uses it to pound his bag as he wanders

about Japan which in turn makes money fall out and into the hands of

his worshipers who follow him. His hammer metaphorically is often

called upon to "break through" the obstacles to successful business

deals, political success and prosperity in general. On a physical

level, Daigoku's hammer is used in several ways. In the past, gold

and precious items were kept in wooden strong boxes in Japan, to

break the box with the hammer was how one opened it, much like

breaking a piggy bank today. This special hammer is also seen today

in Japan at any kind of victory rally, be it political or business.

The leaders celebrate with several banzai cheers and then, taking up

the hammer of Daigoku, they smash the top of a square cask of sake

and pass it out to everyone. This ceremony is very important and is

considered the symbolic sharing of prosperity by all in the group.

It's not uncommon to find the hammer of Daigoku resting on a pillow

in a store, office, shrine or temple as a good luck charm. Many

people carry smaller gilded hammers on key chains or on pendants.

 

The rat at Daigoku's feet, though repellent to western eyes, in

fact is an enviable symbol of wealth to many Asians. In the past in

Japan, warehouses full of rice meant a good year and this is where

rats were to be found. If one's neighbors had rats, it meant that he

was rich with rice and at some point people began associating the

two. It is interesting that in India the tradition is similar, the

rat sits at the feet of Ganesh and the similarities between he and

Daigoku don't stop there. Though Ganesh isn't usually depicted with a

bag over his shoulder, he does hold platters of cakes, and in his

raised right hand he carries an ax with which he hacks through

obstructions and obstacles to prosperity, very much like Daigoku's

hammer.

 

One of the three largest festivals in Tokyo is the Shin Ko Sai or

Daigoku festival of Kanda Myojin Shrine. (Myojin always signifies a

Daigoku shrine, of which there are thousands in Japan). As the

procession carrying the Kami enthroned in a mikoshi or portable

shrine snakes through the skyscrapers of down town Tokyo, the

business leaders who control the largest share of concentrated wealth

in the world come out of their offices and pay their respects. Some

bow, some march along, others who are very powerful, actually have

the procession stop and order special prayers said by the Shinto

Priest. Here, in the country where business and commerce have become

the focus of almost everyone, even as the ancient agricultural roots

of the nation are revered, the Kami Daigoku reigns supreme as the

collective Kami of prosperity.