Suijin

The term refers to the heavenly and earthly manifestations of the benevolent Shinto divinity of water (mainly freshwater), as well as to a wide variety of mythical and magical creatures found in lakes, ponds, springs, and wells, including serpents (snakes, dragons, eels, fish, turtles), and the flesh-eating kappa.

[2] The Shinto water god is believed to be the guardian of fishermen and the patron saint of fertility, motherhood, and painless childbirth.

People worship Suijin with offerings, believing that doing so will ensure pure and unpolluted water for drinking, agriculture, and sanitation, and will bring success in fishing trips, fertility, motherhood, and easy childbirth.

[3] Suijin is widely worshipped at Suitengū Shrines throughout Japan through votive stone markers devoted to the Water God.

These observances have a significant role in the exorcism[4] of bad spirits and purification, primarily aimed at dangerous epidemics, diseases and natural and man-made water-related disasters which commonly happen during the summer.