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S1 E12 Sigils and Kitchen Magic

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This episode is Sigils and Kitchen Magic

 

Daikokuten

 

Title

  • Japanese God of the hearth, agriculture, fertility, sexuality, and wealth

Description

  • An older man carrying a sack over one shoulder and a mallet in the other hand sitting on top of two bales of rice

Duties

  • Watches over several temples as well as overseeing kitchens, plus being the patron of cooks, farmers, merchants, and bankers.

Lineage

  • Often relate to Ebisu, sometimes Ebisu’s father sometimes his brother

Stories

  • Many years ago when Buddhism moved to Japan, the gods of Buddhism became cross, because people still liked the god Dakoku. The gods got together and summoned Yemma, the judge of the lower regions and gave him the power to destroy Daikoku.
  • Yemma had an army of oni, but he summoned a very special old oni, Shino, to either get rid of or kill Daikoku.
  • Shino searched far and wide asking many questions, getting lost, and was finally pointed in the right direction by a bird.
  • When Shino got there, Daikoku’s castle was full of all sorts of wealth, including rice bales which he prized most of all. After searching throughout the castle Shino came to a storehouse standing alone. 
  • Seeing Daikoku, Shino thought to himself,”This will be easy.” But just then Daikoku talked to his chief rat, who was right next to him, and said,”I feel there is someone here, please chase them out if you would.”
  • Quickly the rat ran off and found a holly branch, all stickers and pokeys.  The rat used it to slap the oni. And Shino cried in pain all the way home to Yemma.
  • Shino told Yemma of his adventures and begged to never be sent after Daikoku again.

    • Interesting Facts

    • One of the Seven Lucky Gods of Japan
  • Started out as a warrior goddess named Mahakala and then changed when she came to Japan

    • Symbols

    • Rats, mallets, bags, rice, rice bales, money

     

    Superstition  Penny luck

    “Find a penny, pick it up, and all the day you’ll have good luck” How many of us remember hearing this as kids? Do you remember how exciting it was to find a penny heads up? But why was it exciting? For one thing it obviously meant something monetarily, unlike today, and it meant you were that much richer. I think the equivalent today might be a quarter at best. 

    Where does the notion originally come from? One idea is in folklore. In ancient times metals were considered gifts from Gods with the intention of protecting them. 

    The Copper age was a part of this time period. The Chalcolithic or Copper Age is the transitional period between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. It is thought to have begun around the mid-5th millennium BC, and end with the beginning of the Bronze Age. The idea of metals being protective also spurred on other like minded superstitions such as the horseshoe being lucky. 

    A different folklore was that each side of a coin represented good and evil. Heads up meant good luck and tails meant bad luck. Perhaps signs of Otherworld and Underworld? It is said that if you find one, tail side up you should flip it over in order for the next person who finds it to have good luck.

    What about the saying, “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a penny in the shoe”? In this case it meant good luck on the bride’s wedding day, to offer luck in the marriage as well as prosperity.

    An unusual supers

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    Powered By MagicBy Tatjana Riedel, Sylvia Short
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