Ugajin

Ugajin (宇賀神), masculine form.

Ugajin (宇賀神) is harvest and fertility kami of Japanese Mythology.^[1][2] Ugajin is represented both as a male and a female, and is often depicted with the body of a snake and the head of a bearded man, for the masculine variant,^[1] or the head of a woman, for the female variant. In Tendai Buddhism Ugajin was syncretically fused with Buddhist goddess Benzaiten, which became known as Uga Benzaiten or Uga Benten.^[3] The goddess sometimes carries on her head Ugajin's effigy.

In this limited sense, the kami is part of the Japanese Buddhist pantheon.

Gallery

• 
  Ugajin's feminine form
• 
  Statue of Benzaiten, a torii and a male Ugajin visible on her head (whose coiled serpent body is barely visible behind her crown)
• 
  Wooden snake at Zeniarai Benzaiten Ugafuku Shrine

Notes

1. Watsky, Andrew Mark. (2004). Chikubushima: Deploying the Sacred Arts in Momoyama Japan, p. 233., p. 233, at Google Books
2. Handbook of Japanese mythology by Michael Ashkenazi p.126
3. Itō, Satoshi: "Ugajin". Encyclopedia of Shinto, Kokugakuin University, retrieved on August 15, 2011