Outline of the Story 
For over a thousand years, a destructive, five-headed dragon wreaked
havoc on the
countryside
around Enoshima (an island in Sagami Bay 50 kilometers southwest of
present-day Tokyo). The dragon had its lair in a long, desolate lake in
the vicinity. For the first 700 years of its rampage, the dragon caused
floods and droughts, resulting in plagues and revolts. Later the dragon
rained fire, hail, and torrential rainfall on the Kanto region. The
dragon's rampage peaked in the sixth century AD., when it appeared in
villages, swallowing children. In desperation, the villagers sacrificed
a maiden to it, but
to no avail.
Heaven saw the tribulations of the villagers, however. In 552 AD (the
year of the formal arrival of Buddhism by traditional dating), a
bright goddess (Benzaiten)
descended onto the island of Enoshima, which she had just caused to
rise from the sea amidst a shower of boulders from the sky after a
ten-day swarm of earthquakes. The dragon fell in love with the
beautiful
goddess. The eloquent goddess, however,
shamed the dragon, convincing
it of the
error of its destructive ways. Thereupon the dragon ceased causing
disturbances and turned itself into a hill that is known to this day as
"Dragon's-Mouth Hill." Thus the people were saved.
The story implies that the problems faced by the villagers (the
flooding and droughts and resulting plagues and disturbances) were less
severe after the spectactular terrestrial and aerial phenomena in 552
AD and
the descent of the savior-goddess.
This wood-carving of the savior-goddess, Hadaka Benzaiten (naked
Benzaiten) is kept in the Hoanden
treasure storehouse on the grounds of Hetsunomiya Shrine on Enoshima
Island.
She is naked because of her role as the goddess of knowledge, which
must be unadorned (cf. the English term, "the naked truth").
