National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

　　The Five Great Wisdom Kings (Godaison, Godai Myōō) are five deities placed in five directions, which is depicted in a set of two scrolls of the Humane King Sutra translated by a Chinese priest-translator Fukū (Skt. Amoghavajra; 705–774) and a scroll of Shomugekyō Sutra and consists of Fudō (Skt. Acala, center), Gozanze (Skt. Trailokyavijaya, east and to the observer’s bottom right), Gundari (Skt. Kuṇḍali, south and to the observer’s bottom left), Daiitoku (Skt. Yamāntaka, west and to the observer’s upper left) and Kongōyasha (Skt. Vajrayakṣa, north and to the observer’s upper right). The Godaison paintings are drawn as five separate paintings have been seen from the early Heian period (794–1185) and some examples such as the Godaison painting held at Tōji Temple in Kyōto are known. However, just like this painting, Godaison painting style represented in one painting that Fudō is at the center and others are in each of the four direction was established later than that and the images in ink line paintings first appeared in the period between the late Heian period (794–1185) and the early Kamakura period (1185–1333).
　　In terms of the style, Fudō has a similar but more ample body than the Painting of Blue Cetaka held in Shōren-in Temple in Kyōto and the faces are similar too. It indicates an iconography of the style of the painter-priest Genchō (dates unknown). The halo with flames on the back is divided into seven parts as if they were flames with the design of a sacred bird, Garuda. The images of two child attendants have a style mixed with those held in Hōrakuji Temple in Ōsaka and Ruriji Temple in Hyōgo Prefecture from the Painting of Blue Cetaka (Child Acolytes Ceṭaka (Seitaka Dōji) is the same as the ink line image of two child attendants with a style of Genchō held at Daigoji Temple.) The iconographical features of other four wisdom kings are very similar to the four wisdom kings excluding Fudō among Godaison paintings in Daigoji Temple and is also the same as the iconography of the style of the painter-priest Enshin (dates unknown) contained in the icon collection book, Bessonzakki. In a word, this painting was drawn in a newly established style by combining multiple styles of iconographies.
　　Unlike the Painting of Blue Cetaka, no colorful or fine patterns are applied to Fudō. The expressions such as the heavy colors, strongly applied a shading technique and expressive ink lines are rather different from the Buddhist paintings in the Heian period and indicate unique the features of the powerfully expressed Buddhist paintings in the Kamakura period.