Yakushi-Nyorai

Yakushi-Nyorai (Sanskrit: Bhaiṣajyaguru) is the Medicine Buddha of Mahayana Buddhism. He presides over the Eastern Pure Land of Lapis Lazuli and is the focus of twelve great vows for healing, longevity, and the removal of calamity.

The Yakushi Rurikō Nyorai Hongan Kudoku Kyō, translated into Chinese by Xuanzang in the 7th century, records his vows. The Shoku Nihongi (compiled 797 CE) notes that Emperor Tenmu commissioned Yakushi-ji in 680 CE in petition for the recovery of his consort, and an eye-opening ceremony for the Yakushi image was performed in 697 CE.

Within the Mahayana cosmology he is one of the Five Wisdom Buddhas in some Esoteric formulations. His attendants are the bodhisattvas Nikkō (Sunlight) and Gakkō (Moonlight), forming the Yakushi Triad.

The Yakushi Triad of Yakushi-ji in Nara, an early 8th-century cast bronze group, is a National Treasure and a foundational example of Hakuhō-period sculpture. He is also enshrined as the principal image at Hōryū-ji's Kondō and at numerous other historic temples across Japan.

Also called Yakushi Rurikō Nyorai, Daiō, and Iō-Zenze. The Sanskrit name Bhaiṣajyaguru is standard in scholarly literature.