Sanjuubanshin　三十番神

KEY WORD :　art history / iconography

Also read Sanjuubanjin. Various sets of thirty *kami 神 who protect the nation's peace and people's happiness during the thirty days of the month. The origins of this concept are obscure, but are commonly traced to a story concerning the abbot Ennin 円仁 (794-864) in which he invited thirty principal Shinto deities kami to Mt. Hiei 比叡 in order to protect the copy of Lotus Sutra HOKEKYOU 法華経 which he had made under special ritual conditions and had enshrined at the Nyohoudou 如法堂 of Yokawa 横川 on the mountain. The earliest records of the Sanjuubanshin, however, date from the late Heian period and their cult is not prominent until the Muromachi period. The Sanjuubanshin are shown in both groupings of sculptures and in paintings of the thirty deities arranged in rows. Most extant depictions show the set of protectors of the Lotus Sutra, and were hung as protective talismans especially during Tendai 天台 or *Nichiren 日蓮 ceremonies. Early paintings tend to show the deities standing, while later paintings show them seated. There is a panel painting of the Sanjuubanshin dated 1433 in the Shirahige Jinja 白髭神社 in Moriyama 守山, Shiga prefecture. The kami and the day they serve vary according to the set, but include deities of Sannou 山王 (the shrine associated with Enryakuji 延暦寺 on Mt. Hiei), others from near Lake Biwa 琵琶 and Kyoto, and famous deities from elsewhere in the country. A set of deities could protect the power of texts other than the Lotus Sutra, and more purely Shinto sets could protect the directions (although these could number 32 they were still called Sanjuubanshin). The significance of the cult was the general protection by powerful kami. The cult of the Sanjuubanshin of the Lotus Sutra was adopted in the Nichirenshuu 日蓮宗, and within that sect it was connected with the cult of the ten daughters of the raksasas Juurasetsunyo 十羅刹女 who appear in the 26th chapter of the Lotus Sutra, Dharani Daranibon 陀羅尼品, where they swear to protect those who practice the sutra and preach the Buddhist Law or Dharma

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