Ugajin

{{Short description|Japanese mythology deity (kami)}}

File:Ugajin_masculine_form.jpg

{{Nihongo|Ugajin|宇賀神}} is a harvest and fertility kami of Japanese mythology.Watsky, Andrew Mark. (2004). {{Google books|m7okz1DQslwC|Chikubushima: Deploying the Sacred Arts in Momoyama Japan|page=233}}[https://books.google.com/books?id=gqs-y9R2AekC&pg=PA126 Handbook of Japanese mythology by Michael Ashkenazi p. 126] Ugajin is represented both as a male and a female, and is often depicted with the body of a snake and the head of a bearded man, for the masculine variant, or the head of a woman, for the female variant. In Tendai Buddhism Ugajin was syncretically fused with Buddhist goddess Benzaiten, which became known as Uga Benzaiten or Uga Benten.{{EOS|Ugajin|200|Itō, Satoshi|August 15, 2011}} The goddess sometimes carries on her head Ugajin's effigy.

In this limited sense, the kami is part of the Japanese Buddhist pantheon.__NOTOC__