The register rules: Benzaiten
Evidence dossier 068 — Benzaiten. Every exhibit catalogued, every ruling stated with its grounds.
At a Glance
- Canonical form: Benzaiten
- Original script: 弁財天
- Pantheon: Japanese
- Convention: Hepburn with macrons — ō and ū marked, never collapsed to o/u or rewritten ou
- False forms on record: 0
- Contested forms: none attested
- Series: The Canonical Register, No. 68 of 437
The Evidence
Exhibit 1 — the attestation. The name is attested as 弁財天, as Lotus Sutra (chapter on Sarasvatī's protection) and Kojiki and Nihon Shoki (syncretic kami references) preserve it. On the evidence, it means "Argumentation talent heaven". The canonical transliteration is Benzaiten.
Exhibit 2 — the flattened form. The plain form benzaiten differs from the canonical Benzaiten only by convention of display — case, not content. It is acceptable everywhere: in legacy systems, in plain-text citation, in the DNS itself. What is not acceptable is what follows in the register: respellings that change the letters, not just their case.
Exhibit 3 — the physical record. Benzaiten's most prominent shrines are at Enoshima (Kanagawa) and Chikubushima (Lake Biwa). Both sites preserve Edo-period shrine architecture, statuary, and votive materials documenting her popularity among fishermen, merchants, and performers.
Exhibit 4 — the continuing record. Benzaiten remains one of Japan's most popular fortune deities. Her image appears on New Year prints, in manga and anime, and at shrines where artists and business owners pray for success.
The Convention's Own History
Every tradition in this register has its own scholarly transliteration standard, built by its own specialists over decades or centuries, and the register follows each on its own terms: Hepburn with macrons — ō and ū marked, never collapsed to o/u or rewritten ou. The principle that unifies them is the one the whole project stands on: a name is evidence, and evidence is not negotiable — not for keyboards, not for convenience, not for anyone.
The Protocol's Position
Can the canonical form live in the address bar? Almost always, yes. IDNA 2008 admits every mark this register defends — the DNS stores them as `xn--` punycode and modern browsers render them natively. The real frictions are practical, not legal: some registrars stock only part of the IDN space, so a theoretically valid name can be temporarily unbuyable; and stacked combinations (an acute riding a macron) remain awkward to type on mobile keyboards even where the protocol accepts them.
The project's answer is a ranked ladder, not a compromise: the full restoration first, then attested fallbacks in descending order of completeness. The ladder's lowest rung, plain ASCII, is a vehicle for legacy systems — sanctioned, but never presented as the scholarly form.
The Verdict
Case closed on Benzaiten: canonical, cited, and defended. The keyboard form benzaiten is the same name in another register of display — always acceptable. The register's files remain open: if a source surfaces that changes any line of this entry, the entry changes. Until then, the temple at /benzaiten/ holds the canonical form.
The docket for this ruling: no false forms on the docket; no contested forms attested; the attestation rests on 3 cited sources — Lotus Sutra (chapter on Sarasvatī's protection), Kojiki and Nihon Shoki (syncretic kami references), Bocking, A Popular Dictionary of Shinto.
The Register Continues
This is one of 437 entries in the Canonical Register — the authoritative reference for every flagship temple. The temple's founding dispatch tells the name's story; its Restoration File details the marks; its Resonance File reads the archetype into the industries. The blog index holds the whole archive, and the Rulebook states the convention this register enforces.
Continue the register — previous entry: Beli (read it) · next entry: Bestla (read it).
The Canonical Register is written from the same canonical record as the lexicon itself. If a false form is missing from this page, it is because the evidence does not support calling it false — or because we have not seen it yet. Show us, with a citation, and the register will answer.