Addendum Slide 39. Condensed Visual Classroom Guide to Daikokuten Iconography in Japan. © Mark Schumacher 2017.

The Rat as Daikokuten’s Messenger and AttendantZhong Yijiang, Religion & Culture Forum, June 2012
• Month without the Gods: Shinto and Authority in Early Modern Japan• See Invited Responses to Yijiang Zhong’s Month Without Gods
• The Origins of Modern Shinto (by Yijiang Zhong, 2016)

QUICK OVERVIEW OF RAT’S LINK TO DAIKOKUTEN IN JAPAN

Quote from Month without the Gods, pp. 40-43: “Nariai Ukyō, active 19thcentury. A second kind of association Nariai organized is the Mouse
Association (Kinoene kō 甲子講). How and when the image of the mouse
became connected to Okuninushi and the Izumo Shrine is an open historicalquestion. In the entry “Daikokuten shinko,” The Comprehensive Dictionary ofJapanese History (Nihonshi daijiten) posits that the connection originated fromthe mythological narratives in The Chronicle of Japan and Record of Ancient
Matters where a mouse served as the messenger for Okuninushi. In the entry“Kōshimachi” or the Kōshi Festival which is a festival devoted to Mahākāla, thedictionary holds that Daikoku/ Mahākāla is from the north direction and northcorresponds to mouse, first of the twelve zodiac animals. It is interesting tonote that Nariai simply cited tradition as the reason for his naming of theassociation as the Mouse Association. The founding statement gives astandard introduction to the power of Okuninshi, first in creating the land thenblessing people with good fortune, money and business prosperity. The
building of the Izumo Shrine, the statement continues, and the appointment ofAmenohohi as its priest by the Sun Goddess is based on the fact thatOkuinushi is now the ruler of the divine affairs, which is carried out in theMonth with the Gods when blessing of all humans and marriage decisions aremetered out. “It is an age-old custom that praying to the images of Okuninsuhi
on the days of kōshi can lead to avoidance of disasters, good fortune and therealization of all wishes. The Kitajima kokuso in particular hopes the blessing
power of Okuninushi reach Osaka; therefore I am setting up the MouseAssociation.” (Yijiang fails to give any dates for Nariai’s life, and says “theperiod of Nariai’s life needs further research.”)Link also to JHTI http://supercluster.cias.kyoto-u.ac.jp/berkeley/jhti/

Bishamon (Kubera) and Daikokuten (Mahākāla) and Shōten (Gaṇeśa) areall associated with a rat messenger. All three hail from the Hindu pantheon
and were later adopted in the Buddhist fold.
Mongoose (associated with Bishamont / Kubera) was not indigenous toChina or Japan; it was therefore replaced by the rat
Rat is Zodiac animal guarding the north; it represents midnight until two(two hours of extreme blackness)
Bishamon (Kubera) and Daikokuten (Mahākāla) are guardians of thenorth; Bishamon is known as the “Black Warrior,” Daikokuten as the“Great Black One;” Daikokuten is especially the guardian of the northeast
corner, the so-called “demon gate” or kimon 鬼門, where demons gather
and enter the human world; Daikokuten is thus the “guardian parexcellence”
Japanese monk Shunnyū 淳祐 (890-953) describes Daikokuten holding alarge bag on his shoulder -- a bag the color of “rat hair” (somō-jiki 鼠毛色);
this strange 10th C. reference to the rat predates the 14th C. appearanceof Daikokuten atop rice bales; by the 10th C., the rat-related Gaṇeśa roseto great popularity in India
By the 13th century, the rat appears in Japanese Buddhist artwork inassociation with the 12 Generals of Yakushi Nyorai (Medicine Buddha)
In the Muromachi era, the anonymous work Daikokutenmai 大黒天舞
describes rat-like creatures who accompany Daikokuten
Around the 18th century, Daikokuten’s link to the rat filters down tocommon lore and popular art
Around the 18th century, Ōkuninushi (main kami of Izumo Shrine) isaggressively conflated with Daikokuten; Ōkuninushi’s link to the rat /mouse (recorded in 7th-century Nihon Shoki & Kojiki) is also aggressively
popularized
SPECULATION. The “traveling preachers” of Izumo Shrine were thecatalysts in linking Daikokuten to the rat; their strategy of conflatingŌkuninushi (and rat attendant) with Daikokuten “leaked” over; art ofDaikokuten and rat appear for the first time
By at least the 18th century, the custom of offering forked radishes toDaikokuten was established; the radish and rat are emblems of Gaṇeśa;the radish custom is still practiced today
By the 19th century, Daikokuten is worshipped monthly on the day of Kōshi(day of the rat) – see Kitagawa Morisada’s Morisada Mankou 1853).