Gundari Myouou　軍荼利明王

KEY WORD :　art history / iconography

Also Kanro Gundari 甘露軍荼利 (Sk: Amrtakundalin); also known as Kirikiri Myouou 吉里吉里明王. One of the five great myouou *godai myouou 五大明王, the fierce deities who preside over the five directions. He represents the wrathful manifestation of Houshou 宝生, one of the Five Buddhas of the Diamond world, Kongoukai gobutsu 金剛界五仏 and presides over the southern quarter. His name Gundari is a transliteration of Sanskrit Kundali, and the origins of his cult are generally thought to lie in the Hindu cult of kundalin, a form of latent spiritual energy envisioned in the form of a snake coiled at the base of the spine. He is believed to be especially efficacious in the removal of obstacles to ones spiritual or physical progress, and he is invoked in many rites in the Shingon 真言 sect. He is described in texts as having either one face and eight arms or four faces and four arms, but he is usually represented in the one-faced and eight-armed form. The objects held in his hands may vary, but he invariably has snakes coiled around his neck, waist, wrists and ankles, and he stands on a lotus with one leg raised. Artistic representations of him, both statuary and pictorial, are usually found in sets of the godai myouou but there are also many examples of independent wooden images (e.g., Daikakuji 大覚寺 and Enryakuji 延暦寺 in Kyoto, Konshouji 金勝寺 in Shiga prefecture, and Jourakuin 常楽院 in Saitama preference). He also appears with two arms in the *Taizoukai mandara 胎蔵界曼荼羅 as Kongou Gundari 金剛軍荼利 (Sk: Vajrakundalin) in the Soshitsuji-in 蘇悉地院 and Kongoushu-in 金剛手院 and as Renge Gundari 蓮華軍荼利 (Sk: Padmakundalin) in the Kannon-in 観音院.

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