November 07, 2006

Gods of Japan A photo library and dictionary with emphasis on Japanese Buddhism and Shintoism.

The Quick Guides give brief, illustrated overviews of topics such as Shinto/Shintoism, a Timeline & History, or Tenbu/Deva so one's not completely at sea amid strange names. Anyone curious about the Seven Lucky Gods or the Twelve Generals or the Horse-headed Kannon and a host of other things not commonly known in western culture will find this site rewarding.

posted by beeswacky 18 years ago
  • Super cool.
  • Wow, very cool. Also utterly confusing -- the pantheon, that is -- to me thus far, but I'm working through the who's who section.
  • Dayumn, bees, i'm going to be spending all day with this! thank you!
  • Excellent link, bees.
  • I've been to this site before, but lost it. I like it a lot. Thanks bees!
  • YES! In the last couple years I've made over thirty ceramic representations of this luck god, without knowing her name or anything about her. The original form I got at thrift shop, and no one I know could identify her, despite many of my friends being raised in Japan. There's been plenty doubt whether she was female even. One of the hindrances I've had to identifying her has been that the original figure is most likely a Chinese incarnation, not Japanese. It's hard to recognize her on the page I linked to, but this picture on the Seven Luck Gods page bees linked to shows all of them, and Benzaiten and my figure look exactly alike. Even down to the headband and hair style. It's so cool to find out who she is— I've been fascinated by her form for a couple years now. It's pretty awesome to find out she rules fine art— she's been my muse in more ways than one, then. Thanks again bees!
  • Monkeyrhonicity. MonkeyFilter: Dayumn, bees, i'm going to be spending all day with this! thank you!