The register rules: Benzaiten
Evidence dossier 085 — 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. 85 of 548
The Evidence
Exhibit 1 — the attestation. The name is attested as 弁財天, as Ṛgveda 6.61 and 8.91 (the Sarasvatī hymns) and Lotus Sūtra, the chapter on Sarasvatī's protection record. 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 principal sanctuaries are her own archaeology. At Enoshima, the Hetsunomiya and Okutsunomiya shrines preserve Edo-period structures above a cave-cult that is older than any of them; the Enoshima engi scroll itself is a primary document of the medieval cult. Chikubushima's Hōgonji, on its sheer rock in Lake Biwa, preserves temple buildings and statuary from the Muromachi period onward. Itsukushima's great torii and sea-stage (12th–13th centuries, periodically rebuilt) mark the Aki shrine where her Munakata identity is worshipped. And the portable arts document her widest diffusion: countless Edo-period woodblock prints, netsuke, and temple statues show Benten with her biwa and coiled serpent — the material record of a fortune-cult that reached into every pocket.
Exhibit 4 — the continuing record. Benzaiten is still working. Enoshima's shrines receive millions of visitors a year; Chikubushima's Hōgonji still crowns its island rock in Lake Biwa; musicians, calligraphers, and business owners keep her as patron.
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 5 cited sources — Ṛgveda 6.61 and 8.91 (the Sarasvatī hymns), Lotus Sūtra, the chapter on Sarasvatī's protection, Enoshima Engi (mid-11th century).
The Register Continues
This is one of 548 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: Belobog (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.