Bentendō on Shinobazu Pond

In front of you, in the middle of Shinobazu Pond, stands the Bentendō, the hall of the goddess Benzaiten. The pond is what is left of an old inlet of Tokyo Bay, and the island you are standing on was made by human hands.

1A Lake Biwa in Edo

The monk Tenkai, the same man who founded Kan'ei-ji, wanted this pond to recall Lake Biwa, near Kyoto. So he had an island built in it with a temple to Benzaiten, modelled on the island of Chikubushima. The octagonal hall you see was rebuilt in 1958, because the previous one was lost in the wartime air raids.

2A water goddess

Benzaiten came to Japan from India by way of Buddhism. She is the goddess of music, eloquence, water and fortune, and is usually shown holding a biwa lute. Popular tradition associates her with snakes, which were considered her messengers.

Around the hall lies a small cemetery of things: memorial stones put up by trade guilds to thank the objects of their craft.

You will see, for example, a memorial to kitchen knives, where chefs pay tribute to their old blades, and another to spectacles. It is the same idea as the dolls at the Kannon-dō: whatever has served you well deserves a proper farewell.

3What to look for

• The octagonal plan of the hall and its multi-tiered roof.
• The knife memorial and the spectacles memorial, among the engraved stones.
• The lotus leaves that cover the pond in summer.