HACHIMAN

[Japanese] The Shinto god of war, and the divine protector of the Japanese people. He is worshipped by the peasants as the god of agriculture, and by the fishermen who hope he will fill their nets. An alternative name for him is Yawata, the god of the eight banderoles. The doves are his symbolic animals and his messengers. In Shinto, he is identified with the deified emperor Ojin Tenno, son of the Empress Jingo, from the 3rd - 4th century CE. In the Buddhist pantheon (eighth century CE) he is associated with the great bodhisattva Daibosatsu.