{"id":4238,"date":"2016-03-22T08:00:19","date_gmt":"2016-03-21T23:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/voyapon.com\/?p=4238"},"modified":"2020-03-27T11:38:47","modified_gmt":"2020-03-27T02:38:47","slug":"money-zeniarai-benten-shrine-kamakura","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voyapon.com\/money-zeniarai-benten-shrine-kamakura\/","title":{"rendered":"Money Laundering at Zeniarai Benten Shrine, Kamakura"},"content":{"rendered":"
In Kamakura by a suction-marked road, you’ll find a Torii gate littered with hefty stones. \u00a0The stones were perhaps hewed from the formerly firmer space of the earthly hollow now known as Zeniarai Benten shrine. \u00a0From the shrine, veining from rock into rock, is your tunnel towards the corpus core. Washed coins into prettier pennies at this Kamakura life spring.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n The shrine gate sagging into the subterranean slope, a mobius bend of light flashes into relief. Figures shift forwards from an orange-hued terminal space. The shaft breaks open into the light. A series of gates have here been deposited by a colossal collector: one with a lopsided stone span, another of light green lichens, and a wooden one suffused cinnamon.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n From Daibutsu hiking course through deep earth colors, this depository of gates and structures stands within an earthen pit. This ground was first reached by a deep dig sanctioned by Kamakura shogun Minamoto Yoritomo. He had a dream where a god paid him a visit, beseeching him to travel Kamakura’s northwest and strike into the Earth. Here, he discovered natural springs burbling like words in the afterthoughts from his resonating dream.<\/p>\n Artifacts around Zeniarai Benten shrine show an eclectic native mix of Buddhist and Shinto icons, alike the Daibutsu hiking course itself. \u00a0The non-embellished gates bordering orange-railed sub-shrine bridges show Shinto influence, while well-maned Chinese lions guarding the sub-shrines and perfuming incense brushes a Buddhist breeze. The half-snake patron deity Ugafukujin is the Buddhist Bodhisattva (akin to a saint) Sarasvata or Benzaiten’s Shinto interpretation – so picked for Minamoto’s dream dreamed in the year and month of the snake.<\/p>\n Zeniarai Benten’s auspices are its springs. \u00a0Washing your money within its waters will yield double your Yen’s (or choice currency’s) value. \u00a0The five-part procedure actually begins spending money.<\/p>\n The main building sells a set of three candles and incense sticks. This building is the widest of all, and crowds will trail there. From under a nearby char-black peaked roof, a pot for incense perfumes the air. \u00a0Another mottled Torii row facing this incense stand designates your standing place – by your side is the main shrine. The second step is lighting a candle, then placing it inside the altar.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Mouthing an incense wisps’s whisper lies a cave just by the main shrine. Passing into the sacred sediments, I felt the closest to intrusion in any house of the sacred I’ve visited. On the walls are wooden signs with faded characters. \u00a0Here Zeniarai’s springs trickle a small stream. \u00a0The stream bed was clear-cut under the spring water’s soft erosion. Framed on a luminous in-pouring are the intricate interstices of an altar: set inside the cave but brown as a sunbathed bark. Hanging rainbow fabrics catch the sun for black nights.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Many couples share their ritual financial ablutions here. From a small rock nook, they bring wicker baskets and pockets of small change. Their faces are round, uncreased by any expression; only eyes sparkled like gems of intent. The cave is awash with the wellspring for wealth, all edges washed away. The third step doubling your monetary capital is cleansing your yen, then skewering a candle on a sepulchral candelabra off towards the cave’s side.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n