The Shichifukujin are the plainest evidence of how the tradition handles imports: it does not resolve them, it puts them in a boat together. Ebisu, patron of fishermen and merchants and often identified with the deformed first child of Izanagi and Izanami who was set adrift, is the only native member. Daikokuten, Bishamonten and Benzaiten are Indian deities — Mahakala, Vaisravana and Sarasvati — arriving through Buddhism; Fukurokuju and Jurōjin are Chinese Daoist figures, sometimes said to be the same being; Hotei is a historical Chinese Chan monk. The group as a set was assembled in the Muromachi period. Their treasure ship is printed and put under the pillow on the second night of the new year to produce an auspicious first dream, and seven-shrine pilgrimage circuits exist in Tokyo, Kyoto and most other cities, walkable in a morning. Nobody involved regards the mixed provenance as a problem to be explained.