Fudō Myōō and Yūten Shōnin

The novice priest Yūten Shōnin 祐天上人 (1637–1718) was a complete failure. He couldn’t memorize the Buddhist sutras, and the senior monks had given up on him. In an act of desperation, Yūten made a solemn vow to improve in front of an image of the deity Fudō Myōō, the Immovable Wisdom King. That night, Fudō Myōō appeared to Yūten in a dream and made him swallow his sword. After that, Yūten was able to learn easily, eventually rising to become the thirty-sixth abbot of Zōjōji 増上寺 temple in Edo, the family temple of the ruling Tokugawa shoguns.

In Yoshitoshi’s dramatic triptych, the young priest Yūten kneels as if in prayer, the sutras scattered on the floor near him. The statue of Fudō Myōō, flanked by his attendants, seems to have just come alive and stepped down from the altar, leaving behind his flaming backdrop. He holds his sword of wisdom as if about to thrust it into Yūten’s mouth.