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For most people, Demachi-yanagi is just where you change from the Keihan to the Eizan line when on the way to explore Kurama in northern Kyoto. But if you leave the station you will find that you stand at a very particular spot, where the Takano and Kamo rivers flow together. On the triangle between both rivers stands the Shimogamo Shrine with its patch of forest and the river bank is lined with nice villas.

[The Kamo River at Demachi - Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

If you continue and cross both rivers over the bridges in a straight line, you will come to an old-fashioned, down-town shopping area, with a real arcade called Masugata. Just before the New Year, two days ago, the street was lively and bustling - for once, no closed shutters of shops that had closed down here. On the contrary, it made all quite a flourishing impression.

[Demachi shopping mall - Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

We had delicious soba and saba-sushi in a small restaurant at the entrance to the arcade and when we walked back to Demachi-yanagi Station noticed a Benten temple on our right.

There was no statue on view in the small temple, and in fact the main image appeared to be a Benten painting kept in a storehouse behind the open main hall, so placed that devotees can say their prayers symbolically towards the location where Benten is present.

Ben(zai)ten is originally Sarasvati, the Indian River Goddess and also in Japan she is the deity of everything that flows (as Wikipedia so aptly states): words (and therefore also knowledge), speech, eloquence and music. She was a protector-deity and later also developed into a goddess bestowing monetary wealth, so that she was counted as one of the Seven Gods of Good Fortune.

In Japan she was also associated with snakes and dragons and in general kept her close affinity with waters, lakes and ponds. It is no coincidence that two of her most famous temples are located on islands, one on Chikubushima in Lake Biwa, the other on Enoshima at the coast of Kamakura.

Benten is usually portrayed as a beautiful woman, an aristocratic lady, playing the biwa lute or carrying that instrument in her arms. She is also seen riding a dragon.

[Benten Temple Demachi Myo-ondo - Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

The painting is called Seiryu Myo-on Benzaiten or the Benten of the Blue Dragon and Mysterious Sound - the name of the small temple was Demachi Myo-ondo. This Benten was the private “Buddha” that Yasuko, the eldest daughter of Saionji Kinhira (1264-1315), took with her to the palace when she married the Emperor Gofushimi. The Benten painting remained an object of reverence in the Fushimi Detached Palace and was also transmitted to the Northern Court Emperors Kogon, Komyo and Suko. In the early 18th c., Sadatake, the 14th Imperial prince of the Fushimi House, moved his residence to the present area at Demachi-yanagi and took the Benten image with him. Presumably, from then on it became known among the common people as a powerful image. In the Meiji period, when it was transferred to Tokyo, local people petitioned succesfully for the return of the miraculous image and subsequently it was enshrined in the present temple.

[Demachi-yanagi Station - Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

It is popularly known as the Benten of the Fushimi Palace and is especially effectful when prayers are said for accomplishments in the arts as well as prosperity and a happy home.