Soutou-hebi-hoppoune Zu engi
dedicated to Enoshima Shrine
May 2003

The Japanese have traditionally relied on agriculture for food. The dragon-snake god was revered for its outstanding abilities in observation, power to swallow the enemy in one gulp, agility and its ability to shed and be born again, as a symbol to which people expressed the bounty of nature. In ying-yang and the Five Elements, blue is the symbol of spring, and white represents autumn. The two-headed snake has white heads and blue body, representing that the blessings of the previous year is carried on to the next. The tangled body suggests the power of the flow of nature. Also, a child was placed in the north, which is the symbol of winter. The child is expected to grow in number, with the bounty of a year growing and maintaining continuity into the next. The drawing has been drawn as a prayer for bounty from the land and from the sea with the dragon-snake god and the child of bounty maintaining continuity from the ancestors.