902 sarah fremerman aptilon
Gongen , the god of Mt. Kimpu (“Golden Peak”),
for gold to complete construction of the temple.^27 Zaō instructs him
to worship an image of Nyoirin, and when he does, gold is soon dis-
covered in distant Mutsu province. Tōdaiji was completed and
dedicated in 752, and Ishiyamadera was founded on the site where
Nyoirin was worshipped. A more elaborate version of this same story
appears in the Ishiyamadera engi (see BZ 117, 179a–181b).
The presence of Zaō Gongen is just one detail in this story that
reflects Shōbō’s legacy at Ishiyamadera: Shōbō is said to have revived
Shugendō practice on Mt. Kimpu, where Zaō presides. According to
the Daigoji engi, he engaged in ascetic practices and enshrined images
there of Nyoirin, Tahō Tennō (Prabhūtaratna), and Zaō
Gongen (BZ 117, 249b). In fact, several key details from the Daigoji
engi reappear in both the Sanbō ekotoba and Ishiyamadera engi ver-
sions of the story of Ishiyamadera’s founding, which together suggest
that the founding legend of Daigoji was transposed to Ishiyamadera.^28
Other tales in the Ishiyamadera engi reflect Nyoirin’s growing
appeal as a child-granting deity of special interest to women. In one
tale, for example, a dying marriage is revived: the tenth-century diarist
Fujiwara Michitsuna no Haha has fallen out of love with
her husband, the Great Minister of the Left Fujiwara no Kaneie
(929–990); she goes on retreat at the temple and prays for help,
has a mysterious dream in which a monk pours water out of a sake
bottle onto her right knee, and returns home to find her relationship
with Kaneie vastly improved (BZ 117, 184a).^29 In another, the wife of
a court official named Fujiwara Kuniyoshi goes on retreat
at the temple to pray for a child, and Nyoirin appears to her in a
vision and hands her a wish-fulfilling jewel; the couple is soon blessed
with a male child and substantial wealth (BZ 117, 191a–192a). Another
(^27) Also called Kimpusen or Kane no Mitake, located in what is now Nara prefec-
ture. As the home of Zaō Gongen, the mountain is considered one of Shugendō’s
most sacred sites. Zaō is the central deity of Shugendō, a fierce god who dwells on the
mountain and is believed to guard the gold hidden within it; Shugendō’s founder En
no Gyōja (fl. late seventh century) is said to have had a vision of Zaō on the mountain.
Zaō is depicted with one head, three eyes, and two arms, right foot raised in a pose
that suggests leaping or alighting, holding up a vajra in the right hand, and the left
hand on his hip in the sword mudrā (tokuen no in).
(^28) On similarities among the three tales, see Fremerman 2008, 82–89.
(^29) Fujiwara Michitsuna no Haha is the author of one of the four major Heian dia-
ries, the Kagerō Nikki , spanning the period from 954 to 974, in which she
describes, among other things, her unhappy relationship with Kaneie.