The character of Benten Kozō, meanwhile, is said to have been based upon a servant at the Iwamoto-in temple on Enoshima, an island dedicated to the goddess Benten.
Benzaiten, the goddess of music and entertainment, is enshrined on the island.
She is enshrined on numerous locations throughout Japan; for example, the Enoshima Island in Sagami Bay, the Chikubu Island in Lake Biwa and the Itsukushima Island in Seto Inland Sea (Japan's Three Great Benzaiten Shrines); and she and a five-headed dragon are the central figures of the Enoshima Engi, a history of the shrines on Enoshima written by the Japanese Buddhist monk Kōkei (皇慶) in AD 1047.
The Katase is an approximately 3-kilometer-long segment of the river from Kawana (川名), Fujisawa, where the Sakai River (境川) and Kashio River join, to a point at Enoshima Island, where the river flows into Sagami Bay.
For each class, seven races were scheduled; these took place from 12 October to 23 October 1964 off the coast of Enoshima in Sagami Bay.
On his way back to Kyoto, Sugiyama fasted and prayed for 100 days at the shrine of the goddess Benzaiten at Enoshima Cave, where he reputedly discovered the secret of the shinkan ("insertion tube") after pricking himself on a needle wrapped in a leaf.
British cartoonist Charles Wirgman and photographer Felice Beato were in Enoshima near Fujisawa, where they met Major Baldwin and Lieutenant Bird of the British garrison in Yokohama.