The following photograph-packed article is about Giant Snake
sideshows
as seen at midways of state fairs in the United States. This
manuscript was produced by Dr. Eriko N. Bond, noted art critic
and New York City author, as told by Takeshi Yamada. Efforts
were made to feature giant snakes and giant snake sideshows in a
proper perspective in the cultural anthropology and visual
anthropology. Takeshi Yamada is one of the most influential and
active educators in New York City with several dozens of awards,
recognitions and nominations including two “Key to the City”
from Mayors, “Who’s Who in America”, “One Thousand Great
Americans”, “International
Educator of the Year”. He has also taught classes and
given public lectures at over 40 educational institutions
internationally. Yamada is also a prolific author of article
publications including 11 published books, and an artist with
over 450 fine art exhibitions with his paintings and sculptures
exhibited internationally in Spain, the Netherlands, Canada,
Japan and the United States.
In
addition, rogue taxidermy artworks, sideshow gaffs, large
sideshow banners and showfronts created by Yamada in the last 40
years have been exhibited at dozens of state fairs and festivals
annually even today around the nation.
TAKESHI YAMADA
ON
GIANT SNAKE SHOWS
Coney Island Sideshow and Beyond
Article by Dr.
Eriko N. Bond as told by Takeshi Yamada
Chapter 6
Takeshi Yamada and a gorgeous Brazilian Rainbow Boa.
“Baby Museum” of Dr. Takeshi Yamada at Dreamland Amusement Park
in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York.
(July 15, 2009)
In
many nations, just as images of their God and religious leaders
have been displayed in public places proudly, the images of
divine snakes have been also displayed in a like manner. This
religious culture of “public displays”, exhibitions” or “shows”
of giant snakes, divine snakes, sacred snakes and snake gods has
a very long history on this planet. In fact, this may well be
the original and the longest-running “Greatest Giant Snake Show
on the Earth”, Takeshi Yamada states. For this reason, following
chapters featured major shows of such divine snakes at major
nations.
This
chapter features snake gods in Japan. Some of the snake gods
were imported from foreign nations and other snake gods were
originated in Japan. For more information about human-headed and
snake-bodied god and goddess such as Ugajin and Benzaiten in
Japan, see an article entitled Takeshi Yamada on Snake
Girls: Japanese Misemono, American Sideshow, and Beyond
written by this author as told by Takeshi Yamada.
Shows of Snake Gods (Part 5)
Shows of Snake Gods
Example #7: Snake Gods in Japan
There are two kinds of snake deities in Japan traditionally. One
is Benzaiten (Benten) and another is Ugajin.
Takeshi Yamada was born and raised in Osaka, Japan. He moved to
the United States as an international exchange student in 1983.
For his unparalleled high artistic achievements and
distinguished academic excellence, Yamada was the only student
selected from over a dozen applicants from the Osaka University
of Arts in Osaka, Japan. Shortly after the completion of his
Master degree and teaching art classes for two years at
University of Michigan, with his achievements in fine art,
Yamada was granted citizenship in the United States. This
chapter owes his personal experience and comprehensive research
about unique and distinctive traditional Japanese culture and
religious rituals and ways as seen from the perspective of a son
of the respectable house of samurai warriors. Samurai warriors
and its military government ruled Japan during 1192 and 1868.
Many common and popular culture and religious rituals enjoyed by
most of the general population in Japan today were first
popularized among small numbers of Koushitsu (Imperial house),
Kuge (clan of court noble), and Buke (clan of samurai warrior)
historically.
(left) Benzaiten by Utagawa Kunisada, wood block print, 1860.
(right) Wooden Statue of Benzaiten presented in the Buddhism
style
Note Benten crowns a white snake on her head.
Benzaiten with Biwa (Japanese lute)
http://www2.osk.3web.ne.jp/~sinpukuj/sakuhin/benzai%20w.html
Benzaiten is a Goddess but she has been also rendered in full
nudity and partial nudity in Japan.
(left) Benzaiten (Kamakura. Enoshima Seven Lucky Gods. Enoshima
Jinja, Shinto shrine)
弁財天
（鎌倉・江ノ島七福神
江島神社）
Hadaka Benten or Naked Benten
http://park1.wakwak.com/~hisamaro/7best.htm
(right) Benzaiten. Nagoya city, Tougenji Buddhist temple. Nemuri
Benten or Sleeping Benten
弁財天
（名古屋市
桃厳寺のねむり弁天）
http://park1.wakwak.com/~hisamaro/7best.htm
In Japan,
Benzaiten (Benten, Benten-sama, Benten-san, Benzaiten,
Benzaiten-sama, Benzaiten-san) is rendered with divine white
snake, or white snake crown on her head.
Benzaiten (弁才天,
弁財天)
is the Japanese name for the Hindu goddess Saraswati; there was
an important river in ancient India of this name (see Vedic
Saraswati River). Worship of Benzaiten arrived in Japan during
the 6th through 8th centuries, mainly via the Chinese
translations of the Sutra of Golden Light of Buddhism, which has
a section devoted to her. She is also mentioned in the Lotus
Sutra of Buddhism. She is often depicted holding a biwa, which
is a traditional Japanese lute.
Benzaiten is
originally the Goddess of things which flow such as music,
poetry, art, the sea, and protector of children. The Chinese
pictogram of
才
means talents, and
財
means assets/money, and these two words are pronounced the same
“zai” in Japanese. Thus she also became the Goddess of financial
success in Japan by changing the Chinese pictogram from
才to財.
Benten
is often portrayed as a beautiful woman, and she was even curved
in wood with full nude to show her glorious feminine body, which
is very unusual even in Buddhism in Japan. When Benzaiten is
rendered in very classical Buddhism statues, she has eight arms
and in her hands she holds a sword, a jewel, a bow, an arrow, a
wheel, and a key. Her remaining two hands are joined in prayer.
Strangely, Benzaiten is also one of Shinto deity - the sole
female among the Shichi-fuku-jin (Seven Lucky Gods) of
Japan. At other times, she appears with a sea dragon (Chinese
style; embodiment of vitality and good).
(Ref. http://web.hc.keio.ac.jp/~shnomura/sakuragi.html)
One of the most
fascinating aspects of Benzaiten, according to Takeshi Yamada,
is the wide range of her physical appearance represented in
religious sculptures in Buddhism, Shintoism and pagans in Japan,
which is absolutely unparalleled to her statues in any other
nation. Specifically, when Benzaiten is fused with a local
religion worshipping Ugajin (male snake god of harvest), she is
rendered as a seemingly monstrous human-headed and snake bodied
deity as shown below.
Stone statue of Benzaiten displayed for public at Fukujuin in
Nakanoshinbashi in Japan.
http://sakaue.vis.ne.jp/sanpo/nakashin/nakashin.benten.html
The photographs
shown above is of a large size stone statue of one of Japanese
deities – Benzaiten(弁財天)
or the
human-headed snake-bodied
(人頭蛇身.
Jintoudashin)
Goddess - on
display at Fukujuin (福寿院)
in Nakanoshinbashi (中野新橋)
in Tokyo, Japan.
Another snake god is
Ugajin. Ugajin is an obscure kami worshiped as a deity of
fortune from the early medieval period on in Japan. Fused with
the Buddhist deity Benzaiten, this kami became known as
Uga Benten, and was also called by the titles Uga Shinnō
("divine-king Uga") and Uga Shinshō ("divine-commander Uga").
This kami's name has been conjectured to derive from the
Sanskrit ugaya but most sources suggest that it originated in
the tutelary of foodstuffs Uka no mitama as found in Kojiki
and Nihongi, and that it was thus originally worshiped as
a grain spirit or deity of good fortune.
Physically speaking,
Ugajin is usually represented with a giant white snake with the
head of an old man with well-groomed hair and a long white
mustache and beard.
Statue of Ugajin enshrined at Shinnouin (a Buddhist Temple) at
Kouyasan (Mount Kouya)
(高野山親王院収蔵の宇賀神像)
http://kousyoublog.jp/?eid=1705
Ugajin
Ejima Sugiyama Jinja (Shinto shrine) (江島杉山神社)
http://tencoo.fc2web.com/jinja/xsugiyama.htm
Ugajin
God of five grains. His face is
an old man. His body is a winding white snake forming the Gyoku/Tama
(jewelry).
(五穀を司る神。 顔は老人、体は白蛇で曲りくねって玉の形をしている。)
http://www.myokyoji.or.jp/sub8.html
Ugajin (sketch, graphite on paper by Tadami Yamada)
Kanki Tendou at Hiogashi
matsuyama City, Saitama prefecture (東松山市・歓喜天堂)
http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/plexus/8009
Ugajin. The architecture in the background is Torii (the sacred
gate of Shinto shrine)
http://www.butuzou.co.jp/syotenjin/ugashin.html
Ugajin at Suzukuma-dera or Suzukuma Buddhist temple (鈴熊寺)
http://www.town.yoshitomi.lg.jp/p/1/9/2/27/3/2/
Ugajin and descriptions of Ugajin
http://8tagarasu.cocolog-nifty.com/sakamitisannpo/2006/06/index.html
Ajigaike Benten (Snake-bodied Benzaiten) (阿字ヶ池弁天)
One of seven Lucky Gods of Hakone (箱根七福神)
http://park1.wakwak.com/~hisamaro/7best.htm
Benzaiten (Aizu Seven Gods, Ryuugen-in)
弁財天
（相模七福神
龍源院）
http://park1.wakwak.com/~hisamaro/7best.htm
Izumohara Benzaiten, Sano Seven Lucky Gods
（佐野七福神
出流原弁財天)
http://park1.wakwak.com/~hisamaro/7best.htm
Statue of Ugajin, 1767
Inokashira park (井の頭公園),
Musashino city, Tokyo prefecture
明和四年（1767年）作の「宇賀神」
http://www.geocities.jp/rikwhi/eki_kichijoji/eki_kichijoji.html
Note: The
photographs shown above are just a small collection available in
numerous internet websites. Needless to say, there are many
periodicals, magazines, books, television shows and movies
featuring them in Japan. There are also modern and contemporary
artists who create statues of Ugajin such as Byakudou Mokujiki (木食白道)
in Japan. For more information see an article entitled
Takeshi Yamada on Snake Girls:
Japanese Misemono, American Sideshows, and Beyond
by
this author as told by Takeshi Yamada.
http://homepage3.nifty.com/houjyuen/starthp/subpage06.html
Continue to
Chapter 7
Copyright by Takeshi Yamada, Museum of World Wonders in Coney
Island. Yamada Art Center. Brooklyn, New York, 2007. Revised in
June 2009, All Rights Reserved.
E-mail: yamada108@verizon.net
Special thanks to Dr. Eriko N. Bond, Lauren D. Travis, Seara
(sea rabbit), Maremi Kakushina and Dr. Abraham Morris.
Also
special thanks to Jack Frost (senior proofreader)
http://www.sideshowworld.com/SSA-15.html
http://www.roguetaxidermy.com/members_detail.php?id=528
http://www.horseshoecrab.org/poem/feature/takeshi.html
http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/events/exhibitions/other/worldwonders.jsp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpVCqEjFXk0
