916 karen j. mack
content and meaning of the Latter Seven Days Ritual, see Mack 2008,
85–89).
The images used in this ritual are major monuments of Heian-period
painting, now designated as national treasures. The paintings of the
twelve deva kings from the Saidaiji may have been commissioned for
the first Latter Seven Days Ritual in 835 (Ariga 1995, 223–25, fig. 301).
The ninth-century paintings of the Womb and Diamond Mandalas
from the Tōji Saiin were borrowed for use in the latter seven days ritual
in 1177, when the former Shingon in paintings were destroyed in a fire
(Ariga 1983, 85–86). This later set of images of the twelve deva kings
and the five mantra kings commissioned for use in the latter seven
days ritual are generally accepted as dating to 1127, with the possible
exception of the paintings of Brahma (Bonten, ) and the wind god
Vāyu (Fūten, ), which possibly date from 1040 (for more on the
issues of dating these latter paintings, see Sakuma 1986).
Kūkai worked in tandem with the temples of Nara and likewise pro-
moted Shingon Buddhism as serving the state, but by the mid-Heian
period the nobility had acquired greater power and wealth than the
state. In this situation, however, the Tendai school of esoteric Bud-
dhism was at first more successful at soliciting the patronage of the
nobility.
The Tendai priest Sōō (831–918) was paramount in this initial
development. Sōō was ordained as a Tendai priest in 856 to perform
Buddhist practices and acquire merit for the personal well being of
Major Counselor Fujiwara no Yoshimi (813–867), and he
received a character from Yoshimi’s personal name for his ordained
name (Konryū Kashō den, GR 5: 545a). Afterward, Sōō was repeat-
edly asked to perform rituals for the benefit of the nobility, the most
famous of which included ministrations for Yoshimi’s daughter Lady
Nishi Sanjō in 858 and 861, Yoshifusa’s daughter First Lady Somedono
Akirakeiko in 865, Vinaya Master Genshō in 903, and Emperor Daigo
in 903 (Konryū Kashō den, GR 5: 545b, 546b, 548a, 550b, 550a).^10
Sōō is quite famous for his practices in regard to Acalanātha. Dur-
ing his ascetic practices in the Mt. Hiei area incumbent upon Tendai
ordinands, he had a vision of Acalanātha, who appeared to him in
(^10) These stories are also charmingly recounted in a number of legends (of somewhat
dubious accuracy). See Katsuragawa engi ZGR (1957–1959) 28 : 119–120; Uji shūi
monogatari (SNKBT 42: 386–88) and Mills 1970, 429; Kojidan (KT 18:56–57); Fusō
ryakki (KT 12:174).