Il Benten-do

Il Benten-do
Hours: 7:00 to 17:00
Closed: No closing days
Admission: Free
Galleggiando sulle acque del laghetto Shinobazu, il Bentendo
è un tempio buddista dedicato a Benzaiten, o la Dea delle
arti. Ai giorni nostri si rivolgono preghiere a Benzaiten per
avere successo negli esami e una buona sorte.
Il Bentendo fu costruito da un daimyo, cioè un lord feudale,
chiamato Mizunoya Katsutaka, agli inizi del 17esimo secolo.
All’inizio la fatica di attraversare l’acqua per raggiungere
l’isola doveva essere un onere di cui si gravava il devoto, che
doveva prendere una barca per raggiungerlo. Solo diversi
anni dopo, alla fine del 17esimo secolo, fu costruito un ponte
per semplificare il collegamento, e questo ne ha sicuramente
incrementato la popolarità. L’edificio originale è durato per
almeno tre secoli, finchè non fu distrutto da un raid aereo nel
1945. La struttura attuale fu ricostruita nel 1958. Entrando nell’edificio principale potete notare una lunga corda e una
lanterna (chochin) : non esitate a far salire lo sguardo fino al soffitto. C’è un drago d’oro detto'Kin Ryu', bellissima opera
d’arte dell’artista Kodama Kibo.
Circondato dalla natura, il tempio è un’oasi ad Ueno. Prendetevi il tempo per esplorare la zona dietro al tempio, girando
per il sentiero che circonda il lago. Ci sono delle panchine per riposarsi e ammirare il panorama.
La dea Benzaiten
Benzaiten is the Japanese name for the goddess Saraswati; there was an important river in ancient India
of this name. Worship of Benzaiten arrived in Japan during the 6th through 8th centuries, mainly via the
Chinese translations of the Sutra of Golden Light, which has a section devoted to her. She is also
mentioned in the Lotus Sutra. She is often depicted holding a biwa, which is a traditional Japanese lute.
Her Sanskrit name is "Sarasvatî Devî", which means "flowing water", and so Benzaiten is the goddess of
everything that flows: water, words (and knowledge, by extension), speech, eloquence, and music. The
characters used initially to write her name, read "Biancaitian" in Chinese and "Bensaiten" in Japanese
(辯才天), reflected her role as the goddess of eloquence. Because the Sutra of Golden Light promised
protection of the state, in Japan she became a protector-deity, at first of the state and then of people.
In the end, she became one of the Seven Gods of Fortune, and the Sino-Japanese characters used to
write her name changed to 弁財天 (Benzaiten), which reflects her role in bestowing monetary fortune.
Sometimes she is called Benten, although this name refers to the goddess Lakshmi.
In the Rig-Veda (6.61.7) Sarasvati is credited with killing the three-headed Vritra, also known as Ahi
("snake"). This is probably one of the sources of Sarasvati/Benzaiten's close association with snakes and
dragons in Japan. She is enshrined on the Island of Enoshima in Sagami Bay, about 50 kilometers south
of Tokyo, and numerous other locations throughout Japan; and she and a five-headed dragon are the
central figures of the Enoshima Engi, a history of the shrines on Enoshima written by the Japanese
Buddhist monk Kōkei (皇慶) in AD 1047. According to Kōkei, Benzaiten is the third daughter of the
dragon-king of Munetsuchi (無熱池; literally "lake without heat"), known in Sanskrit as Anavatapta, the
lake lying at the center of the world according to an ancient Buddhist cosmological view.