Zeniarai Benten Shrine: the shrine dedicated to money-making in Kamakura

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2 years ago Pavel

In medieval city of Kamakura, a seaside Japanese city just south of Tokyo, Zeniarai Benten (銭洗弁天), officially Zeniarai Benzaiten Ugafuku Shrine, is one of the most popular spots despite its relatively small scale.
But there is a reason: the belief that coins will miraculously multiply when washed in the spring waters in the shrine’s cave!
Not by chance, “zeniarai” means “coin washing”, and It is said that money washed in the shrine’s spring, will double.

Zeniarai Benten was supposedly founded in 1185 by the order of Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147–1199), the first shōgun, military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868, of the Kamakura shogunate.
According to the legend, on the Day of the Snake, in the Month of the Snake, in the Year of the Snake, he had a dream that led him to a mystical spring, after which he established a shrine dedicated to Uga-jin, a mysterious deity, a “kami”, often depicted in the form of a human-headed serpent.
He ordered the shrine’s construction after kami Ugafukujin, appeared in his dream and recommended him to build the shrine in order to bring peace to the country.
The kami told him that “In a valley to the northwest, there is a miraculous spring that gushes out of the rocks. Go there and worship (Shinto) kami and (Buddhist) hotoke, and peace will come to the country. I am the kami of this land, Ugakufujin.”

Surrounded by steep cliffs, the grounds are accessible only by a tunnel dug during World War II today.
Althought few small shrines and dozens of tori’i arches stand there, but most visitors will sooner or later be drawn to the okumiya, or inner shrine, founded in the cave, in which there are wicker bowls and wooden dippers inside, which the visitors are free to use to douse the contents of their wallets in sacred water.
Some people wash not only coins but banknotes, lottery tickets and even credit cards, wishing to receive good luck.
In such cases, just a little drop of the water is said to be sufficient.
Either way, after you have washed your money in the cave, some recommend keeping it in the wallet for good luck, inspired by the folk belief that coins can’t stand loneliness and that they need company or a guardian but, according to the shrine, spending the cleansed money will bring more fortune.
Whichever version you believe, and whether you believe the whole thing in the first place or not, it won’t hurt to visit this charming shrine and try the miraculous money-washing when you’re in Kamakura.
The tradition of washing money at the spring in the hope of seeing it multiply was born in 1257 (Shōka 1) when Kamakura’s ruler Hōjō Tokiyori came here to worship and recommended the faithful to wash their coins, saying that if they did so, they certainly would be rewarded by Ugafukujin, who would multiply them and grant their descendants prosperity.
He himself did so, and people started imitating him, starting a tradition which continues to this day.

Interestingly, some shrines, including this one, traditionally merge Uga-jin and Benten (or Benzaiten), the Buddhist-Shinto river goddess known as Sarasvati back in India, creating a syncretic god.
Both deities are associated with money and fortune, and Benzaiten, the master of snakes, is said to be perhaps inspired by the serpentine flows of rivers and streams.