DAIKOKU

Daikoku: translation

or Daikoku-ten.

   A syncretic deity uniting the Indian god Mahakala with the kami O-kuni-nushi (great land-possessor, which can also be read dai-koku) and identified variously as the god of the kitchen, of wealth or fortune, and especially in Kyushu as kami of the ricefields and of agriculture. Saicho (Dengyo daishi) who may have introduced the worship of Daikoku to Japan, enshrined him at Mt. Hiei. He was linked in popular belief from the medieval period with the god Ebisu. In the Tokugawa period shusse ('success') daikoku was widely revered as the god of ambition and achievement. He is now generally represented as one of the shichifukujin, in which form he appears wearing a black hat, with a bag over his shoulder and holding a wish-fulfilling mallet.