CHAPTER FIVE

MARISHITEN—THE WARRIOR GODDESS IN JAPAN

Mārīcī was known in Japan at least as early as the Nara period (710–794
a.d). One of the dhāraṇī-sūtras devoted to her was recorded in the ninth
year of the Tempyō era (737 a.d.),1 but the Japanese may have been famil-
iar with the goddess they called Marishiten even earlier. A famous image
housed in Tokyo’s Tokudaiji Temple2 depicts Marishiten standing upon
the back of a wild boar. This image, attributed to the skillful hands of
Shōtoku Taishi (572–621 a.d.), Empress Suiko’s imperial regent, is a male
figure holding a straight, double-cutting-edged sword in the right hand
with the left hand stretched forward.
Shōtoku Taishi is often credited with carving images he could not pos-
sibly have created, but attributing this Marishiten image to him cannot be
summarily dismissed. Although a description of this image of Marishiten
is not found in any extant texts, the lack of such a description does not in
itself constitute conclusive proof that the image is falsely attributed to
him. As seen in Chapter 2, the Mārīcī cult was known in China by the
beginning of the sixth century, and several Mārīcī texts, some no longer
extant, were brought to Japan in the succeeding centuries.3 Due to the
efforts of Japanese Buddhist monks over the ages, a few fragments of these
texts still exist. However, there is no account of the image in question,
making it impossible to verify if the texts available to Shōtoku Taishi
contained any description of this boar-mounted image. (See Fig. 7-1.)
Other factors, however, make it doubtful that Shōtoku Taishi did indeed
produce this image. First, the Japanese consider him a Buddhist culture
hero and, as a result, several images he did not carve were accredited
to him to increase their status. In addition, the earliest reference to the
boar in any preserved Mārīcī text is found in the Body Spell of Atikūṭa’s

1 The Dainippon kobunsho, vol. 8, 80, lists Bukong’s Spell of the Goddess Bodhisattvā
Mārīcī (T. 1255A). See Ishida Mosaku, Shakyō yori mitaru Narachō Bukkyō kenkyū (Tōkyō,
reprint 1966), 83.
2 Tokudaiji is located next to Tokyo’s Okachimachi Station, not far from Ueno.
3 I.e. these are references in the Hishō kuketsu concerning a “Discourse on the
Goddess Mārīcī” (Molizhitian jing) 『摩利支天經』(SZ XXVIII: 503b7 et seq.) and a
“Discourse on the Goddess-Spell of the Great Bodhisattvā Mārīcī”(Molizhitian dapusa toluoni
jing) 『摩利支天大菩薩陀羅尼經』(SZ XXVIII: 504a9–11).
122 chapter five

mid-seventh century Collected Dhāraṇī-sūtras, but the earliest appearance

of a boar-mounted Mārīcī does not appear until Tian Xizai’s tenth century
Exalted Bodhisattvā Mārīcī. Even if Shōtoku Taishi carved this image, it is
odd that it is not described in the Sanskrit texts (Niṣpannayogāvalī and
Sādhanamālā) or the Chinese texts (Collected Dhāraṇī-sūtras or Exalted
Bodhisattvā Mārīcī). Consequently, claims that Shōtoku Taishi produced a
boar-mounted image of Marishiten in the early seventh century cannot be
corroborated.
During the reign of Empress Suiko (r. 593–628 a.d.), when Shōtoku
Taishi was the imperial regent, works on invisibility—Marishiten’s most
significant attribute—were being brought to Japan. The Nihongi (720 a.d.)
contains the following reference concerning the tenth year of the reign of
Empress Suiko:
A Paekche priest named Kwalluk (Jp. Karoku) arrived and presented by way
of tribute books of calendar making, of astronomy and of geomancy, and
also books on the art of invisibility and magic.4
Although Marishiten is primarily associated with invisibility, the content
of these texts brought by Kwalluk is unknown and their apparent antiq-
uity precludes their containing information concerning the goddess.5
The Japanese priest Annen (c.841-c.897), a Taimitsu6 specialist who
wrote several texts on Marishiten during the ninth century,7 mentions a
male form of the deity, but no mention of a boar mount. Annen even
states that Marishiten is definitely a male deva (Jp. nanten) and that peo-
ple have confused the female images of Kisshōten (Skt. Lakṣmī or Mahāśrī)
with Marīci.8 This is a curious pronouncement for all the Chinese texts
examined thus far (and all of the Sanskrit texts as well) describe Mārīcī
as a goddess (Jp. tennyo <Ch. tiannu) whenever a gender is indicated.
An exception is the scripture known as the Discourse on the Exalted,

4 William Theodore de Barry, Donald Keen, and Ryusaku Tsunoda, editors, Sources of
Japanese Tradition, (New York, 1958), 95.
5 The Nippon koten bungaku taikei, Vol. 68 and the Zōho jigen state that this book on
the “art of invisibility” (Jp. tonko hōjutsu 遁甲方術) was a work existing in the
Late Han dynasty and is noted as such in the Hou Han Shu (eleventh Century). The Zoho
jigen (p. 1973) and Kōjien (p. 1582) note that the term tonko hōjutsu means a kind of ninjutsu
which is an art of stealth or espionage.
6 Taimitsu is Tendai Tantrism in contrast to Tōmitsu, Shingon Tantrism. Annen, a
student of Ennin, was an important formulator of Taimitsu doctrine on Mt. Hiei during the
ninth century.
7 I.e. the Marishi yōki and the Marishiten hihō.
8 See Annen’s Futsūju bosatsukai kōshaku.