Benten with lotus flower

The image depicts Benzaiten (Benten), the Buddhist deity of music, eloquence, and water, conventionally shown holding the biwa or, as here, a lotus. Devotional Buddhist subjects sit at the center of Sasajima's lifelong artistic project, alongside his architectural studies of Todai-ji, Horyu-ji, and other temple complexes. The print renders the figure through Sasajima's characteristic vocabulary: heavy black masses defining robes and hair, carved chisel marks left visible in the printed surface, and the lotus blossom drawn as a flat silhouette rather than a modeled bloom. Benten is among the few female deities in the Buddhist pantheon Sasajima depicted, and his treatment removes her from the courtly iconography of earlier centuries, returning her to the directness of Kamakura-era temple sculpture. The work belongs squarely to his [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) practice, in which he designed, carved, and printed every block himself on [washi](/glossary/washi).