. goddess genealogy 903
episode records a prayer of gratitude offered by the powerful Heian
court figure Kujō Kanezane (1149–1207) for the pregnancy
of his daughter, Empress Sōhekimon’in (1209–1233), in
which he invokes Nyoirin’s power as having made possible the birth
of several sovereigns, including Ichijō (980–1011, r. 986–1011),
Goichijō (1008–1036, r. 1016–1036), and Gosuzaku
(1009–1045, r. 1036–1045) (BZ 117, 194b–196a).
Nyoirin’s manifestation as a jewel woman in the Kakuzen shō thus
reflects a long process of transformation and transitory “feminization”
of the bodhisattva that unfolded in a series of revelations from the
ninth century onward. According to the Daigoji engi, Nyoirin merged
with the goddess-bodhisattva Juntei Kannon in the form of the female
dragon deity Seiryō Gongen, and this identification was later recon-
firmed on the occasion of Seiryō’s possession of the monk Shōkaku.
Through Shōbō’s influence Nyoirin also emerged at Ishiyamadera as a
wish-granting deity who blessed sovereigns and aristocrats with their
hearts’ desires, particularly children. Together these manifestations
hint at the process through which Nyoirin at times took the form of a
goddess and later came to hold a special appeal for women in Japan.
Yet they also reveal that “Nyoirin Kannon” was never a single entity
but a family of deities, a name that was freely borrowed and lent.