Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia

938 cynthea j. bogel

Figure 2. Altar view from the west, karma mandala of twenty-one statues.
Lecture Hall, Tōji (Kyōōgokokuji), Kyoto. Heian period and later; Statues
ca. 839–1834, Lecture Hall, ca. 1598.

pl 11), and Five Great Myōō (Godaimyōō , Vidyārājas, figure

6, color pl 12), and, Fudō Myōō (figure 7) to the west side

of the altar.

The tallest figures are at the center of each pentad. The central

seated Dainichi Buddha figure towers over the whole, creating a

mountainlike landscape with a central pinnacle within the vast space.^3

At the four corners are the Four Deva Kings (Shintennō )

of the cardinal directions; such figures were similarly disposed on

(^3) The Dainichi is jōroku size, which refers to the Japanese measure of sixteen shaku
(approximately 480 centimeters or 16 feet). One jō equals ten shaku; roku means “six”
in Japanese, thus jōroku is literally one jō and six shaku. A seated figure is half that;
nonetheless, an eight-foot seated buddha and a sixteen-foot standing buddha are both
called jōroku.