‘Benzaiten and the Women of the World’

The island of Enoshima is a popular tourist attraction near Kamakura, visited by tens of thousands of people daily. All visitors cross the bridge from Fujisawa-Katase, and most go straight into the Benzaiten shopping street, an approach to Enoshima Shrine, walking past the seaside North Green Park.

There is not much to see in the park itself, apart from a few monuments and a view of Sagami Bay. But in a corner stands a fountain with a curious group of statues, depicting women of various kinds. At the center of the fountain is Benzaiten, the Japanese equivalent to Hindu deity Saraswati, to whom the whole island is dedicated to. Around her, there are Kannon, the Buddhist goddess of mercy; a Southeast Asian dancer; a Hellenistic maiden; and a post-Renaissance European woman.

This eclectic fountain was created by local sculptor Kensei Katō in 1964 in commemoration of the Tokyo Olympics, celebrating women around the world—or of the East and the West, to be precise.