Lux Ferre

God of crossroads, highways, and footpaths, represented by a phallus. Chimata–no-kami is the child of Izanagi-no-mikoto, born of the trousers (hence, presumably,his phallic identity) Izanagi threw down when he started his purification

One of the Shichi Fukujin (seven gods of good fortune), Bishamon-ten is depicted as an armoured warrior in the Chinese style, carrying a Chinese halberd. In his other hand he carries a

One of the Buddha’s first disciples (rakan) who fell from grace and is usually not allowed into the hallowed company. Some say he came from a long line of physicians. He was

The god of poverty. Bimbogami’s attentions will lead to poverty and misery, and people in some locations in Japan will carry out personal rituals to avert the god’s gaze. His attendant is

Monk-soldier during the period of the Gempei war (1180–1185) and devoted companion of Ushiwakamaru/Yoshitsune. Benkei was born to the daughter of a blacksmith near ShingΔ. His mother ate iron and may have

The tutelary venerable of the bath in Zen monasteries. Battabara was an Indian monk who attained enlightenment in the bath. He was entering the bath with seven other monks when he suddenly,

The guardian deity of Mt. Atago, north of Kyoto, protective deity of fire and of protection from conflagration. Like many gongen, Atago-gongen is largely a Shugendπ deity. Mt. Atago, which guards the

The spirit of the threshold. An important Ainu kamui, Apasam Kamui is the protector of the passage from the wild outside to the tame inside of Ainu culture. Though Apasam is not

The merciful Buddha of the Pure Land. The conceptualizations of Amida have always been very vague in Japanese myth. Like many other Buddhas and bodhisattvas, Amida appears in myths, if at all,

The second of the deities dispatched by the heavenly deities to subdue the Central Land of the Reed Plains. He was armed with the heavenly deer-slaying bow and the heavenly arrows. He