Marishi-Ten

Marishi-Ten is a Buddhist deva whose Sanskrit name Marīcī means "ray of light" or "mirage." She is said to be a daughter of Brahma or the consort of the sun deity, and is described as moving ahead of the sun and moon, herself unseen and unbound.

The Taisho Shinshu Daizokyo, Volume 21 (Esoteric Section IV), includes T1254 (Marīcī Sutra), T1255 (Marishi-Ten Bodhisattva Dharani Sutra), T1256, T1257, and T1259, transmitted into Chinese in the Tang period and into Japan with Esoteric Buddhism.

In Sanskrit textual genealogy, Marīcī is associated with the sun and is the consort or daughter of Surya, the sun deity. In Japanese Buddhist iconography she takes feminine form, often depicted on a chariot drawn by boars or on a single boar.

She is enshrined at Zenkyoan (a sub-temple of Kennin-ji, Kyoto), Marishi-Ten Tokudai-ji (Kyoto), Tokudai-ji (Ueno, Tokyo), and Hosen-ji (Kanazawa), among others. Zenkyoan, founded in 1331-1333 by Ogasawara Sadamune, is counted among the "three great Marishi-Ten of Japan."

The Sanskrit form is Marīcī (Mārīcī). The Chinese transliteration was rendered as 摩利支天 in Japanese Buddhist usage. Kusunoki Masashige is recorded as carrying a Marishi-Ten image inside his helmet, and Mori Motonari and Tachibana Doosetsu used Marishi-Ten banners on the battlefield.