10000 Kami

[Otagiri Tatsuzou]

To whom do you pray? Swear? Curse? Beg for favour? Respect quietly?

1247
If this statement were false, punishment by
the invisible powers of Great Bodhisattva Hachiman, the guardian deity of Japan,
especially of the great myo-zhin of Idzu, Hakone, and Mishima, and generally of
the deities of the more than sixty kuni [of the country], would be visited upon
Nobutoshi, Nobutada, and Nobusuke.
www.hi.u-tokyo.ac.jp/IRIKI/ETXT/eng_text15.html

1423
If [Son-Chu] falsified these articles, the punishments of the greater and lesser
deities of all Japan, and especially of
the Great Bodhisattva Sho Hachiman,
the Great Myo-zhin Upper and Lower Suwa,
the Great Gon-gen at Udo and at Kirishima,
the Heavenly Deity Ten-man,
Inari, and Gi-on,
would fall down upon him.
www.hi.u-tokyo.ac.jp/IRIKI/ETXT/eng_text132.html

1462
If these statements be false, the punishments of
the Ten-sho Dai-zhin Gu, of Ise,
the Great Gon-gen at the three places of Kumano,
the Great Bodhisattva Niita Hachiman,
the Ten-man Dai Zhi-zai Ten-zhin, and
the Great Myo-zhin Upper and Lower Suwa,
would be visited upon [Haruhisa].
www.hi.u-tokyo.ac.jp/IRIKI/ETXT/eng_text134.html

1481
If these statements be false, the punishments of
the Ten-sho Dai-zhin Gu, of Ise,
the Gon-gen of the three places of Kumano,
the Great Bodhisattva Sho Hachiman,
the Ten-man Ten-zhin, and
the Great Myo-zhin Upper and Lower Suwa,
would be visited [upon me].
www.hi.u-tokyo.ac.jp/IRIKI/ETXT/eng_text137.html

[Otagiri Tatsuzou]

• Fudô Myôô
  
• Shaka Nyorai
  
• Monju Bosatsu
  
• Fugen Bosatsu
  
• Jizo Bosatsu
  
• Miroku Bosatsu
  
• Yakushi Nyorai
  
• Kannon Bosatsu
  
• Seishi Bosatsu
  
• Amida Nyorai
  
• Ashuku Nyorai
  
• Dainichi Nyorai
  
• Kokuzo Bosatsu
  

JUSAN BUTSU, the Thirteen Buddhas of the Shingon School, are often found represented together in painted images consisting of five Buddhas, seven Bodhisattvas and Fudô Myôô. All together they represent the chief deities of the Taizokai and Kongokai mandalas. In Shingon these thirteen Buddhas assist people during their life and continue to assist them after death to guide them into the realm of enlightenment

The timeline, respectivley to the list above, of invocation by living Shingon followers for the deceased believer is as follows: seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first,
twenty-eighth, thirty-fifth, forty-second, forty-ninth, one hundredth days and on the first year, third year, seventh-year, thirteenth year and thirty-third year memorials of a believer's death.

On each of the individual deities' pages you will see the image of the deity, to the right of which will be the deity's bija, or Sanskrit seed syllable, and the bija's Japanese and Sanskrit pronunciations.
www.shingon.org/deities/jusanbutsu/jusanbutsu.html

[fujiwara]

Somewhat OT...

Having studied Hinayana and Mahayana Buddhism somehwat in college, I am confused by the reference to buddhas other than THE Buddha (previously Sidharta Gautama). Are these personages who have achieved buddhahood? I am familiar with the bodhisattvas, but am also confused by the reference to them all as deities. The Buddhism I am familiar with says that such beliefs are illusory, and that nirvana is obliteration. Could someone kindly expound on this? Arigatou!

- Fujiwara

[Otagiri Tatsuzou]

Transliteration of Sanskrit Marici, the name of a Buddhist goddess representing an amalgamation of several Hindu antecedents, primarily the god Marici, who is considered to have been a son of Brahma (*Bonten 梵天) or one of the ten patriarchs created by the first lawgiver Manu. The deity assumed female form on adoption into Buddhism. Since marici means "light" or "mirage", Marici was regarded as a deification of mirages and being thus invisible or difficult to see was invoked in order to escape the notice of one's enemies. This martial aspect has been carried over in the cult of Marishiten in Japan, where she came to be revered as a tutelary deity of the warrior class. Later she was also worshipped as a goddess of wealth and prosperity among the merchant class, being counted along with *Daikokuten 大黒天 and *Benzaiten 弁財天 as one of a trio of "three deities" (santen 三天)invoked for such a purpose during the Edo period. She assumes a variety of forms and may have one, three, five or six faces and two, six, eight, ten or twelve arms; in her many-faced manifestations one of her faces is that of a sow, and she rides either a sow or a chariot drawn by seven pigs. Images of Marishiten are common in India, but there are few examples in Japan. Shoutakuin 聖沢院 (Kyoto) has a polychrome painting said to be of Korean provenance, while Tokudaiji 徳大寺 (Tokyo) is dedicated to a large image of her dubiously attributed to Shoutoku Taishi 聖徳太子 (574-622). The Nispannayogavali also describes a mandala, *mandara 曼荼羅, centred on Marishiten.
www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/m/marishiten.htm

[solveig]

Noble Cousin!

Greetings from Solveig!

fujiwara said:

Having studied Hinayana and Mahayana Buddhism somehwat in college, I am confused by the reference to buddhas other than THE Buddha (previously Sidharta Gautama).

There is indeed a proliferation of Buddhas especially in various Mahayanah sects. Further, it is not at all clear that the Buddha's of Japanese AND Chinese popular Mayanah Buddhism experience obliteration upon entering nirvana.

There are several popular Buddhas in Japan. One of the most popular is Amida Butsu. According to one sect, all you have to do is "want to believe" in the efficacy of calling on the name of Amida Butsu even once and upon death you will be transported to the pure land in the West.