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

　　Twelve Heavenly Deities (Juniten) is derived from the Indian Devas and adapted to Buddhism as guardian deities. They were originally established as Eight Heavenly Deities (Happoten) and included Taishakuten (east), Katen (southeast), Enmaten (south), Rasetsuten (southwest), Suiten (west), Futen (northwest), Bishamonten (north) and Ishanaten (northeast) and placed in each direction. The other four included Bonten (heaven), Jiten (earth), Nitten (sun) and Gatten (moon) and were added to make Juniten. The earliest painting of Juniten drawn in Japan is the one held in Saidaiji Temple in Nara followed by the one held in Toji Temple in Kyoto, which was drawn at the same time as “The Five Great Wisdom Kings” in Daiji 2 (1127). These were used for the large rituals of esoteric Buddhism such as goshichinichi mishiho. Just like these paintings, paintings with the Buddhist image standing on a lotus-leaf base (kayoza), a felt rug base (mosenza) or a rising cloud and a Sanskrit seed syllable (shuji) on the upper part have the style of “Folding Screen of Juniten” used for abhisheka rituals (kanjo). It seems they started to be used as replacements for Buddhist walking ceremony with an image of Juniten (Juniten gyodo) in the late Heian period (794–1185) and there are precedent works including the painting drawn by the painter-priest Takuma Shoga in Kenkyu 2 (1191) that is held at Toji Temple, and others held at Jingoji Temple in Kyoto and Shojuraikoji Temple in Shiga, etc. This was probably originally in the style of a folding screen.
　　The design of deities is very different from those held in Toji Temple and Jingoji Temple (same as the painting of Shojuraikoji Temple) and it has unique features in that Bonten has one face and four arms instead of four faces and Jiten is drawn with a flower vase instead of flowers in a basket or low pot (moribana) in hands and the Nitten is drawn only with lotus flower instead of a sun disk (nichirin). The lines are firmly drawn and the shading technique (kumadori) is strongly applied. Colorful patterns and gold paint (kindei) are applied on the clothing. The solid style of these paintings is favorable, and they have received attention as valuable works of “The Folding Screen of Juniten” from the Kamakura period (1185–1333).