There Is An International Gods Group loved By People

I have introduced about Japanese Shinto several times in my previous posts and explained that Japanese Shinto is a religion based on nature worship, which says that there are countless gods and goddess for everything in nature. These many gods and goddess are colloquially called “Eight Million Gods”.

It seems like the “Eight Million Gods” can really include everything because Japanese people have worshiped so many different things, people and gods at Shinto shrines in history. Actually until Japanese first modern government made a law to separate Shinto gods and Buddhism clearly, people had mixed Shinto and Buddhism and Buddhism statues were often worshiped at shrines. 

With the concept of “Eight Million Gods”, probably it wasn't strange to do. In fact not only Buddha and Buddhism guardians but also some of other foreign gods have been taken in Shinto shrines. Then, people even made a new gods group for wishing a good luck. 

It is a team of seven gods including six foreign gods and a Japanese god, and named "Shichifukujin (7 good luck gods)". The members of the "Shichifukujin (7 good luck gods)" are Fukurokuju (Taoism god from China), Juroujin (Taoism god from China), Ebisu (Japnanese god), Daikokuten (Hinduism god from India), Hotei (Buddhism monk from China), Bisyamonten (Hinduism god from India), and Benzaiten (Hinduism goddess from India). So, it's an international gods' group established in Japan and it is said that it was created in the 14-16 century.

Nobody knows how it started, but apparently the idea came from a famous Chinese subject for a drawing, "The Seven Wise Men In a Bamboo Forest". In some areas, people added one more god and made it "Eight good luck gods" since eight is a lucky number in Japan. 

By the way, for the most common design of "Shichifukujin" would be a "fortune ship set" that the seven gods are riding on a ship together as you can see in the red box in the photos above. However, to worship "Shichifukujin", usually the statues are placed separately in different shrines and temples and people can enjoy going on a pilgrimage all seven gods to make a wish for a good luck. It's been a popular activity called "Shichifukjin Meguri (The seven good luck gods pilgrimage).

When you search the word "Shichifukujin", you would be able to find many places to enjoy the pilgrimage of seven gods. It would be a nice walk trip especially in this fall season!