Fugen- Japanese GodDeity"Bodhisattva of Universal Virtue"

The White Elephant

Fugen Bosatsu, the Japanese form of Samantabhadra, rides a white elephant with six tusks. The elephant comes from a dream. In the Lalitavistara, Queen Māyā dreamed that a white six-tusked elephant entered her womb, and she conceived Siddhārtha Gautama, the historical Buddha. That same elephant carries Fugen in Japanese sculpture: a youthful figure seated in calm, holding a lotus or pressing his palms together in prayer.

Fugen sits beside the historical Buddha as one half of the Shaka Sanzon, the Shakyamuni Triad. Monju Bosatsu takes the other side, riding a lion. In the final chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, Samantabhadra appears and vows to guard anyone who upholds the sūtra. That vow made Fugen central to Tendai Buddhism, which places the Lotus Sūtra at the heart of its practice. During the Heian period, Fugen worship spread through the aristocratic classes, drawn by this promise of protection.

Fugen Enmei

In the ninth century, Japanese esoteric scriptures produced a form found nowhere else in Asia: Fugen Enmei Bosatsu, Fugen of Life Extension. Where the standard Fugen sits quietly on one elephant, Fugen Enmei has twenty arms and rides four white elephants, each with six tusks and a directional guardian standing on its head. The four elephants stand on a great wheel supported by thousands of smaller elephants. It is an image built for overwhelming force.

Emperors and aristocrats commissioned Fugen Enmei rituals during illness or political crisis. The rite, called Fugen Enmei hō, invoked the bodhisattva's power to extend life and ward off calamity. A Tendai variant shows a simpler form: two arms, a single three-headed elephant. Both versions survive in masterwork paintings and sculptures. The Matsunoo-dera Temple in Kyoto Prefecture holds a National Treasure painting of the Shingon type. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston houses a twelfth-century Tendai sculpture. At Mount Hiei, the headquarters of Tendai Buddhism, the Fugen Enmei ritual is still performed every four years.