Byakuzōō Bosatsu

The name and role of Byakuzōō Bosatsu

A bodhisattva listed as one of the Twenty-Five Bodhisattvas, described as a bodhisattva who likens the greatness of compassion to the great strength of an elephant. In the attributes field, it is recorded in the form of playing a flute.

Source: 飛不動尊 正宝院・飛不動尊 正宝院・飛不動尊 正宝院

Protecting people who wish for rebirth in the Land of Bliss

The Twenty-Five Bodhisattvas are bodhisattvas who protect people wishing to be reborn in the Pure Land of Amida Buddha. A Jōdo Shū dictionary explains the protection of practitioners taught in the Jū Ōjō Amida Butsukoku Kyō as the basis of this faith. Rather than assigning each of them a separate benefit such as fortune with money or success in study, they can first be understood through their saving work as a group.

Source: 浄土宗

Raigō paintings and the bodhisattvas of nerikuyō

As Pure Land faith spread, the Twenty-Five Bodhisattvas came to be depicted in raigō paintings, in which they come with Amida Nyorai to welcome the dying, and in nerikuyō processions. This is explained as a development from the understanding that bodhisattvas who protect practitioners in daily life would also protect them at the moment of death. Their attributes, such as musical instruments and lotus pedestals, vary between sources, and the individual forms shown here rely mainly on Shōhōin's materials, which introduce the Butsuzō Zui.

Source: 浄土宗・飛不動尊 正宝院

Related kami and buddhas

• Nijūgo Bosatsu (the Twenty-Five Bodhisattvas)二十五菩薩