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. 
 

Edo Festival - foot soldiers.

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.

Horse Festival  with Samurai.

     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. 

Edo Festival.

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.