Five Great Buddha Statues Colored on Silk

Five Wrathful Kings on Silk: A National Treasure of Daigo-ji

Five separate silk scrolls, each given over to a single wrathful deity, make up this set of paintings known as the Godai-son zō, or images of the Five Great Wisdom Kings. They date to the Kamakura period and belong to Daigo-ji in southeastern Kyoto, the head temple of the Daigo branch of Shingon Buddhism. In 1955 the set was designated a National Treasure.

The Five Wisdom Kings (Godai Myōō) are not ordinary protectors. In esoteric Buddhist thought they are the fierce forms taken by five Buddhas to subdue those who cannot be reached by gentler means. Fudō Myōō occupies the center; around him stand Gōzanze in the east, Gundari in the south, Daiitoku in the west, and Kongō-yasha in the north. Painted as a group, they served as the principal icons for the Godan-hō, the rite of the Five Altars, performed for the peace and protection of the realm. A set like this was not made to be admired. It was hung during ritual and addressed in prayer.

Why the Set Is a National Treasure

Complete groups of five scrolls surviving from the Kamakura period or earlier are scarce. Only a small number are known today, among them the celebrated set at Kyōō-gokoku-ji, the temple better known as Tō-ji. The Daigo-ji paintings stand within this short lineage of survivors.

What sets them apart is their iconographic line. The figures follow the tradition carried within Shingon practice, which places Kongō-yasha among the five in the north. The Tendai schools, by contrast, substitute Ususama in that position, so the choice of deity itself signals which ritual tradition a painting belongs to. Specialists have long treated the Daigo-ji compositions as a reference point: the wrathful Fudō reflects the manner associated with the tenth-century painter-monk Genchō, and the four surrounding kings echo the forms recorded in esoteric iconographic compendia. Later works repeatedly measured themselves against these figures.

The painting itself carries the muscular drawing of the Kamakura age. Color has held remarkably well across the five scrolls, and the scale is considerable, with each deity rendered close to life size.

What to Look For

Because each king occupies his own scroll, the set rewards slow, deity-by-deity looking. Fudō sits on a rocky pedestal with a single face and two arms, a sword in his right hand and a lasso in his left. Two boy attendants flank him: the red, unruly Seitaka and the pale, mild-mannered Kongara, a pairing that softens the central figure's severity.

Gōzanze raises eight arms, two of them crossed at the chest in the gesture that names him, while beneath his feet lie the Hindu god Shiva and his consort Umā, an image of a rival deity brought low. Gundari, eight-armed and three-eyed, wears living snakes coiled around his arms, legs, and waist. Daiitoku rides a water buffalo, his six faces, six arms, and six legs bristling above the beast as it turns its head back over its shoulder. Kongō-yasha shows blue skin, a cluster of arms, and a row of five eyes set across his faces.

Stand back far enough to take in all five together and the reason for the rite becomes clear. The aim was never beauty for its own sake but a wall of concentrated force.

At Daigo-ji and Nearby

Daigo-ji was founded in 874 by the monk Shōbō, who first built on the summit of Mount Daigo. In 907, under a vow of Emperor Daigo, the temple completed the Godai-dō, a hall dedicated to these very Five Wisdom Kings, alongside its Yakushi hall. Worship of the five is therefore woven into the temple's origins. The grounds, registered as a World Heritage Site, also hold a five-story pagoda from 951, the oldest wooden building in Kyoto Prefecture, and the celebrated garden of Sanbō-in. In spring the precinct fills with cherry blossoms, the same setting Toyotomi Hideyoshi chose for his famous flower-viewing party.

The painted set is not on permanent display. It appears from time to time in the Reihōkan, the temple's treasure hall, so anyone hoping to see it should check the current exhibition schedule before traveling. Even when the scrolls are absent, the Five Wisdom Kings remain present in temple life. Every February 23 Daigo-ji holds the Godairiki-son Ninnō-e, affectionately called Godairiki-san, a rite drawing on the power of the same five deities. Worshippers receive protective talismans, and visitors test their strength by hoisting enormous round rice cakes weighing 150 kilograms for men and 90 for women.

Reaching the temple is straightforward. Take the Tōzai subway line to Daigo Station, leave by Exit 2, and walk about ten minutes through a quiet residential neighborhood.