Daikokuten vs Plutus

One of the Seven Lucky Gods. God of wealth, farmers, and the kitchen. Derived from the Hindu deity Mahakala but merged with the native kami Okuninushi in Japan.

Daikokuten entered Japan through Buddhist transmission as **Mahakala**, a fierce protector deity. Over centuries, his character softened and merged with the Shinto kami **Okuninushi**, the earthly ruler of Izumo. This syncretism transformed him into a benevolent god of wealth and abundance.

**Daikokuten** is a smiling, portly deity who brings wealth, good harvests, and prosperity to households. As one of the **Shichifukujin** (Seven Lucky Gods), he is often paired with Ebisu—the two are frequently depicted together as a duo bringing commercial success and domestic prosperity.

The god of wealth, son of Demeter and the hero Iasion, born in a thrice-plowed field on Crete. Originally the wealth of the harvest, he became the personification of riches in general, most memorably as the blind god of Aristophanes' comedy.

Plutus was born to Demeter and the mortal hero Iasion, who lay together in a thrice-plowed fallow field in Crete. In the version Homer knows, Zeus killed Iasion with a thunderbolt for this union.

Hesiod tells how Demeter lay with the hero Iasion in a thrice-plowed fallow field on Crete and bore Plutus, a kindly god who goes everywhere over land and sea and makes rich whoever finds him. The story roots wealth in grain: in an agrarian world, the harvest was riches.