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Paper short abstract

This talk examines the deity Kisshōten. It discusses her role in eighth-century Nara repentance rituals, workshops that created her statues, and her depiction in sutra as a Buddhist sovereign, arguing that she was a model of female rulership for Fujiwara women such as Empresses Kōmyō and Shōtoku.

Paper long abstract

This talk aims to conceptualize the Buddhist deity Kisshōten 吉祥天 (known in India as Lakṣmī) in classical Japan, extending into the medieval period. It explores her role in Buddhist repentance rituals (keka 悔過) at the eighth-century Nara court, the artistic workshops that produced her statues, and the textual foundations of her devotional worship and iconography as a female sovereign. Using the hidden Kisshōten statue (hibutsu 秘仏) and its cabinet shrine (zushi 厨子) in Kōfukuji’s 興福寺 Central Golden Hall 中金堂 in Nara as a case study, this talk demonstrates that this hibutsu and its zushi are based on earlier representations of Kisshōten and her sacred realm that developed in the Nara period, drawing on concepts of female rulership from ancient India and Tang China.

In Japan, as in the ancient Indian court, Kisshōten was venerated alongside the king, embodying the qualities of a divine queen. Physically and symbolically, she represented an imperial ideal of feminine virtue. Her popularity grew among women in the court, including Empress Consort Kōmyō 光明皇后 (701–760) and her daughter, Empress Kōken / Empress Shōtoku 孝謙天皇・称徳天皇 (718–770). Both devoutly worshipped the Golden Light Sutra (Konkōmyō kyō 金光明経), in which Kisshōten is presented as a divine provider, supplying the people with their basic needs, from cloth to grain. In this capacity, Kisshōten served as a model for these elite Fujiwara women, who sought to legitimize their authority through the Dharma (i.e., Buddhist law), much like the ideal male universal monarch, the Cakravarti (tenrinjōō 転輪聖王, or Wheel-Turning King).

During this period, a repentance rite (keka) also developed around Kisshōten, based on the Golden Light Sutra and keka brought from mainland China (e.g., Yakushi keka 薬師悔過). As this keka was the first to focus on a female deity, elite women in the Nara court—including Empress Shōtoku—drew on this ritual, the goddess, and her statuary to consolidate their power in this politically turbulent period.