Ebisu

EBISU Kami of luck and good fortune, patron of fishermen, and a member of the Shichi Fukujin. Ebisu is often depicted in concert with his father, Daikoku. He wears traditional Heian period clothes and brimless black hat, is usually holding a fishing rod, and holds a large red tai (sea bream) under his arm or slung over his shoulder. Ebisu is a marebito (a “visiting” deity, whom one does well to treat with respect). Fishermen, particularly along the shores of the Seto Inland Sea, often catch him in their nets as he floats from place to place. If the trawl is hauled in, he transforms himself into a curiously shaped stone. The crew possessing such a stone, if it is worshiped and given proper offerings of drink and fish, will have fortunate catches. Ebisu is one of the rusugami (caretaker kami) who keep an eye on the land while the gods are having their annual assembly at Πkuninushi’s palace in Izumo. He does not heed the summons for the assembly because he is deaf, or pretends to be. He therefore invented the practice of clapping hands and ringing a bell at a shrine to attract the attention of the kami. This is still practiced today by every visitor to a shrine. The kami, particularly Takamimusubi-no-kami, are very suspicious of Ebisu’s absences, and they test Ebisu’s hearing from time to time, which is why he doesn’t always answer petitioners.

As the kami of good fortune, Ebisu aids merchants in finding and accumulating wealth. He is also sometimes identified with Sukunabikona, another marebito, or with Kotoshironushi-no-kami. Like many marebito, he sometimes appears as a wandering traveler who if treated hospitably will provide good fortune. He is also sometimes identified with the god Hiruko, who has neither arms nor legs. In the Ryukyus, Hiruko goes to live in the palace of the dragon-king of the sea, returning at adulthood to become god of fishermen and of commerce (Ebisu). Ebisu is sometimes identified with whales, because like Sukunabikona and Ebisu, they come during a season bringing bounty, then depart again to the depths of the sea.

The fish he holds—a tai, one of the most palatable fish in Japan’s seas—is homonymous with medetai (congratulations). It is a staple of Japanese weddings and other major celebrations that invoke good fortune. The figure of Ebisu is extremely enigmatic, as evidenced by the number of other kami he is associated with. Of all the Shichi Fukujin—his most popularly recognized identity—he is the most elusive and ungraspable. He is at one and the same time friendly and threatening, available to the common man and extremely elusive. If anything, he is the antidote, or opposition, to many of the things the kami stand for. Not of any one place, he is at all places, and always a wanderer.

See also Daikoku; Hiruko; Kotoshironushi-no-kami; Marebito; Rusugami; Shichi Fukujin; Sukunabikona.

SOURCE:

Handbook of Japanese Mythology written by Michael Ashkenazi – Copyright © 2003 by Michael Ashkenazi

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