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

　　The Five Great Wisdom Kings (Godai son, Godai Myoo) 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 Fuku (Skt. Amoghavajra) and a scroll of Sho muge kyo (摂無碍経) and consists of Fudo (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 Kongoyasha (Skt. Vajrayakṣa, north and to the observer’s upper right). The images of the Five Great Wisdom Kings (Godai son zo) are drawn as five separate paintings have been seen from the early Heian period (794–1185) and some examples such as “Godai son zo” held at Toji Temple in Kyoto are known. However, just like this painting, the style of Godai son zo represented in one painting that Fudo 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 (hakubyo zu zo) first appeared in the period between the late Heian period (794–1185) and the early Kamakura period (1185–1333).
　　In terms of the style, Fudo has a similar but more ample body than the “Painting of Blue Cetaka” held in Shoren-in Temple in Kyoto and the faces are similar too. It indicates an iconography of the style of the painter-priest Gencho (Gencho yo). 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 (Karura ko). The images of two child attendants have a style mixed with those held in Horakuji Temple in Osaka Prefecture and Ruriji Temple in Hyogo Prefecture from the “Painting of Blue Cetaka” (Child Acolytes Ceṭaka (Seitaka Doji) is the same as the hakubyo image of two child attendants with a style of Gencho held at Daigoji Temple.) The iconographical features of other four wisdom kings are very similar to the four wisdom kings excluding Fudo among Godai son zo in Daigoji Temple and is also the same as the iconography of the style of the painter-priest Enshin (Enjin yo) contained in the icon collection book, Besson Zakki. 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 Fudo. The expressions such as the heavy colors, strongly applied a shading technique (kumadori) 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.