. goddess genealogy 899
The text narrates a further revelation on the mountain that occurred
in 902, in which the female dragon deity Seiryō Gongen declared that
she was a manifestation of both Juntei and Nyoirin, who together
constituted her original form (BZ 117, 247b–248a). Seiryō, third
daughter of the dragon king Sāgara, tells how she began her career
guarding Qinglongsi , the main esoteric Buddhist temple in
Chang’an , where Kūkai had studied under his teacher Huiguo
(Eka, 746–805). She eventually devoted herself to esoteric Bud-
dhist practice and followed Kūkai’s ship all the way to Japan, finally
taking up residence on the mountain in order to protect and propagate
the Buddhist dharma.^18
In Seiryō Gongen, then, Nyoirin also merged with Juntei Kannon,
another esoteric form of Avalokiteśvara, long known both in India and
China as a goddess who had the power to grant devotees conjugal hap-
piness, fertility, and safe childbirth, among other blessings. In India
this bodhisattva likely began her career as the tamed and converted
Buddhist form of an ogress (yakṣiṇī), and her Indian name “Cundī”
(or “Cundā”) denotes lower-caste female status (Gimello 2004, 249–
250 n. 1). Sūtras refer to her as fomu in Chinese (butsumo), liter-
ally “buddha mother,” which has often later been read as “mother of
buddhas,” but which may originally have meant simply “goddess,” a
translation of the Sanskrit bhagavatī or devī (Gimello 2004, 252 n. 6).
The pairing of Nyoirin with this goddess figure may have contributed
to Nyoirin’s “feminization,” and several of Zhunti/Juntei’s rituals for
(^18) Sāgara’s second daughter is the dragon girl who attains buddhahood in the Deva-
datta chapter of the Lotus Sūtra. Seiryō also explains that in the Great Tang her name
was Seiryū (“blue/green dragon,” also translated as “black dragon”), but that here
she was “named for water,” and indeed the water radical is added to both characters
of “Seiryū” to get the name “Seiryō” (“pure waterfall”). This of course also calls
to mind Kannon’s traditional association with water (BZ 117, 248b).
Seiryō Gongen appears in two iconographic forms: as a beautiful woman similar
to Kichijōten holding a wish-fulfilling jewel, or as a two-headed snake symbolizing
the two Kannons (Inokuchi 1991, 240–41). For an image and explanation of the two-
headed snake, see Daigoji shinyōroku, vol. 1, 397–98.
Despite her Buddhist pedigree, Seiryō Gongen likely reflects a cult that already
existed on Mt. Kasatori. Gongen or avatars are syncretic deities that were sometimes
created as emanations of Buddhist deities, but they often served rather to clothe local
cults in Buddhist garb. Dragon or snake deities often possess wish-fulfilling jewels,
and Nyoirin’s jewel may have played a role here in linking her with Seiryō Gongen.
Seiryō Gongen’s tale also bears a strong resemblance to the tale of a Chinese girl
named Shanmiao (Zenmyō), who fell in love with the Korean monk Ŭisang
(625–702), popularized in Japan by the Kegon monk Myōe, who believed himself
to be a reincarnation of Ŭisang.