Kōmokuten

 


When I first walked past this statue, I immediately thought it looked super cool and powerful, so I looked up the name written there and did some research. This statue represents Kōmokuten, who is one of the Four Heavenly Kings (Shitennō) in Buddhism. Kōmokuten’s title is “The Guardian of the West.” Each of the Heavenly Kings guards a cardinal direction, so he is responsible for guarding the western direction. He also protects the Buddha and the Buddhist law. His name “Kōmoku” means “all-seeing,” which shows that he can see through evil and deception and is always watching for threats.

If you look more carefully at the statue, you can see that in his hands he is holding a scroll and a brush, which represent wisdom, knowledge, and perhaps the recording of truth. In some other representations, he is shown holding a spear, showing that he is ready to fight against evil to protect Buddhism. Although he does not have a spear here, his face is very stern and angry, still with that spirit of defense and protection against falsehood and darkness.

One thing that I didn’t notice at all until I did more research is that he is actually standing on a defeated demon (although you can’t see it very well in the photo that I took), symbolizing his strength and his victory over evil. His placement in the temple is also meaningful, as he is facing west—the direction that he protects. It is said that he and the other Heavenly Kings live on Mount Sumeru, a sacred mountain believed to be located at the center of the universe in Buddhist cosmology. The more I learned, the more respect I gained for this figure and what he represents.


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