All That Flows: Benzaiten, White Snakes, and Human-Headed Serpents

In this episode of Uncanny Japan, we follow Benzaiten — also known as Benten — from her origins as Saraswati to her place among Japan’s Seven Lucky Gods. Along the way: Enoshima’s five-headed dragon, white snakes as divine messengers, snake-skin wallets, house snakes, and Ugajin, the wonderfully strange human-headed snake deity linked to rice, water, fertility, fortune, and wealth.

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