EBISU

in Japanese mythology, one of the Shichi-fuku-jin (Seven Gods of Luck), the patron of fishermen and tradesmen. He is depicted as a fat, bearded, smiling fisherman often carrying a rod in one hand and a tai (sea breami.e., a red snappersymbolic of good luck) in the other. He is a popular Shinto deity, and his image is frequently seen in shops and places of commerce. In some Shinto shrines Ebisu is identified with Hiru-ko (usually translated Leech Child), the misconceived firstborn son of the creator couple Izanami and Izanagi, who considered him inadequate and set him adrift in a reed boat. Ebisu is also sometimes associated with Koto-shiro-nushi (Sign-Master), a son of the mythological hero Okuninushi and associated with happiness because of the role he once played as a pacifier in a conflict between earthly and heavenly deities. See also Shichi-fuku-jin.