What would you do if one day, seven Santa Clauses come to town?
Have you ever been to a Japanese gift shop or something and seen on the shelf these funny
little guys and wondered who...do they think you are that you can afford these for $500?
Well those are the Shichifukujin (七福神), or Seven Lucky Gods.
When the new year arrives, they sail on their treasure ship from heaven to earth,
where they give out gifts and happiness.
Like Santa Claus if he had more organization and multiple personality disorder.
On New Year’s, kids are told to put a picture of the treasure ship under their pillows
when they sleep.
That or a picture of Baku (獏) the Nightmare Eater.
If you have a good dream, you would be lucky for the rest of the year.
But don’t tell anyone about the dream or the luck would *poof* disappear.
Now if you have a bad dream, then you’d get bad luck unless you pray to Baku or throw
the picture into a river.
Today, a lot of major cities have pilgrimages to the seven gods that you can complete.
You basically visit seven temples or shrines, hoping that their luck rubs off on you.
Like literally.
People would rub the head or shoulder of Daikokuten, or the belly of Hotei, to bring good luck.
Although these days it just brings coronavirus.
So let’s take a look at all seven gods.
Now the seven haven’t always been the same gods, they’ve changed over time.
They each have a specialty and most of them carry a valuable treasure with them.
They’re awesome because they’re always smiling and laughing like they haven’t a
care in the world.
They’re generally associated with luck, money, and happiness.
Only one of the seven gods originated in Japan.
Three were from Hinduism in India, and another three came from Buddhism in China.
First off, we have my favorite: Fukurokuju (福禄寿), the god of wealth, happiness,
wisdom, and longevity.
You may also see next to him a tortoise, stork, or a crane, symbols of longevity.
He’s all about that longevity, so much so that he can bring people back from the dead.
Fukurokuju is really short, which gives him a disadvantage with the ladies,
but he makes up for it by having a huge forehead.
He came from China.
The story is that he used to be a mere mortal who lived in the Song Dynasty, a Taoist sage,
known for performing miracles.
Then his forehead got so impressive that it turned him into a god.
Just kidding, I don’t know how he became a god.
He also loves Chinese chess, and he doesn’t have to eat so he can just sit there and play
forever like Korean teenagers.
One of his famous sayings is
“it is indeed a great man who can look upon a chess game
without comment.”
Meaning someone who watches a chess game usually can’t keep his mouth shut.
“Oh you should’ve done this,” “Oh this is a better move.”
It really throws you off your game.
A person who controls the urge to nitpick and offer annoying opinions
is a magnificent person.
This applies doubly to YouTube commenters.
There’s a story that goes… a young farmer was returning home and came across two old
men playing chess.
He stopped to watch, without speaking.
Each move from the old timers carried wisdom and mastery.
He got so caught up in the game that nothing else mattered.
Though he did find it a bit strange that the beard of the man with the large forehead seemed
to grow longer as the game went on.
The farmer soon got hungry, but the old man gave him some food so he could keep watching.
And he did watch.
And watched.
Until he realized that it’s late and the whole day had gone.
He quickly bowed and went home.
Unfortunately, he found that his home was not there, and everything looked different.
It seemed like only a day, but he had been watching the chess game for 200 years.
Fukurokuju had given him the gift of long life, whether he wanted it or not.
Fukurokuju’s head looks like a certain male body part, and is often drawn suspiciously
like a harigata (張形), which is a traditional Japanese adult toy for women,
and sometimes men.
Oh old Japanese adult toys can probably fill a whole video, but I probably won’t do it.
This topic, adult toys, may come with a lot of difficulty, and will only cause a mess.
In China, longevity and Taoist teachings are associated with sex.
And so you often find Fukurokuju art in Japanese pleasure quarters.
Fukurokuju carries a valuable treasure attached to his cane:
the Scroll of Wisdom and Longevity,
which contains deep knowledge and wisdom of the world, and also contains the secret to
immortality and the date of death for each living thing.
And here he is doing calligraphy with his conehead.
I love him.
Number 2. Jurojin (寿老人).
This guy is also the god of wisdom and longevity.
Okay he’s pretty much the same guy as the previous one, and people do often confuse
these two with each other.
They’re both gods of wisdom and longevity, both carry a stick with a scroll, both were
Taoist sages in the past, and both have big white Gandalf beards.
Well this is because they’re supposed to be two different manifestations
of the same god.
Yeah, I don’t understand either.
Jurojin’s forehead is decent but not as impressive as Fukurokuju’s,
so he’s deficient in that area.
Some people say Jurojin was Lao-Tzu, the founder of Taoism, before he became a god.
He’s popular with teachers and scientists.
He loves wine and women.
He usually has a deer friend next to him.
Jurojin’s treasure is the same as Fukurokuju’s: The Scroll of Wisdom and Longevity attached
to his cane.
Number 3. Hotei (布袋), the third god from China.
You’ve probably seen this jolly guy already.
He’s the Laughing Buddha.
He’s bald, has a big belly, and is always laughing.
Hotei is the god of happiness and contentment.
He’s the protector of children, and the patron god of bartenders, randomly.
Sometimes when someone overeats, they’re compared to Hotei, most likely by their parents.
He wears the typical Chinese Buddhist monk outfit, but usually when people have big bellies,
they try to keep it under their clothing out of embarrassment or a sense of common decency,
but not the Laughing Buddha, oh no.
He keeps his robe open and just lets everything hang out, one big belly and two smaller ones.
He has a big magic bag that is always full of treasures and food, never empty, and uses
it to help the poor.
Number 4. Ebisu (恵比須), the one Shinto god of the bunch.
He’s a god of labor, and he’s especially popular with farmers, fishermen, and merchants.
He usually carries a fishing rod in his right hand and a big ol fish in his left.
Dude’s always smiling because he caught a huge fish.
He’s also a god of the ocean.
Fishermen may pray to him for safety when they go out and for a good catch.
Ebisu is really popular, probably because Japan loves fish.
Some say Ebisu is the same as Hiruko, the son of Izanagi and Izanami, the gods who created
the Japanese islands.
He was born without bones, so being great parents, they put him on a boat and let the
sea deal with him.
Hiruko survived a life of hardship, finally becoming Ebisu.
You often see Ebisu with the leader of the Seven Lucky Gods, Number 5.
Daikokuten (大黒天).
Many consider Daikokuten his father.
Daikokuten is a god of wealth, earth, rice, agriculture,
he’s also the patron god of farmers.
You often see Ebisu and Daikokuten together in kitchens,
because they’re associated with food.
He was originally a Hindu god of warriors, and came over to Japan in the 800s.
He used to look really badass.
But in the early 1300s, artists began drawing him differently.
You know, he’s retired, past his prime.
Now he’s a little chubby, carries a huge sack of treasure over his back,
and holds this magic wooden hammer.
When he shakes it, coins fall out.
He can also whack it against something and make anything you wish for appear.
Like if you wish for a bump on that guy’s face. Boom, it appears.
Sometimes you’ll see worshippers tap a symbolic mallet on the ground and make a wish, hoping
that Daikokuten would grant it.
So basically Daikokuten changed from a gangster Hindu warrior god to Santa Claus.
Number 6. We have Benzaiten (弁才天), the only goddess in this sausage fest.
She also came from Hinduism, and is a goddess of love, beauty, fertility, literature, art,
music, basically everything your parents hope you don’t major in.
When she arrived in Japan in the 600s or 700s, she had 8 arms, each one holding a weapon.
Nowadays, she has two arms and holds a biwa.
Here’s her naked.
Snakes and dragons are fond of her, so you often see them in Benzaiten art.
She has a reputation for being really jealous.
So there were musicians who worshipped her and refused to marry because they feared she
would get jealous and take away the gift of music from them.
There’s also a belief that couples should not visit her shrine together, or she’d
become jealous and ruin their relationships, which is kind of the opposite of a lucky goddess
isn’t it?
She has a robe called Hagoromo (羽衣), the Robe of Feathers that allows you to fly.
Number 7. Bishamonten (毘沙門天) is the badass warrior of the bunch.
He originated from India and came to Japan in the 500s.
He is the god of warriors and treasure.
He is defender of the nation, stomper of demons and other evil things, and healer of the sick.
On one hand, Bishamonten holds a polearm, and on the other he holds a stupa, which is
a pagoda thing that represents a building that stores Buddhist teachings and parts of
the body of the historical Buddha.
Warriors prayed to Bishamonten before battle.
He helps the country fight against foreign invaders and heals emperors from sickness.
Bishamonten’s messenger is the centipede.
Why centipede?
People used to think centipedes could detect gold and so they would carry them in bamboo
containers when they went into the wilderness looking for gold.
The meta thing about the Seven Lucky Gods is that the number 7 is also a lucky number.
So pretty much everything about them is lucky.
Now, are you feeling lucky punk?
Well try to answer this quiz question then.
What was the name of Emperor Jimmu’s grandfather?
Let me know in the comments.
I’ll randomly choose a winner from among the correct answers tomorrow.
Winner gets one of these.
The last winner was Lquren with a Q.
Hey wanna hear some folktales?
Click here.
We have a new Emperor patron this week, Amanda.
Everyone say hi Amanda.
Thank you so much for being awesome.
We also have new patrons this week, Jane,
Kjartan Borchsenius,
Brandon Ray how’s your day,
and Toritsuka.
Alright I love you guys, and spread the knowledge!