{"id":885,"date":"2011-10-06T14:18:27","date_gmt":"2011-10-06T06:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asianomad.biketravellers.com\/?p=885"},"modified":"2012-05-06T09:22:16","modified_gmt":"2012-05-06T01:22:16","slug":"guardian-spirits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/asianomad.biketravellers.com\/2011\/10\/06\/guardian-spirits\/","title":{"rendered":"Guardian Spirits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/asianomad.biketravellers.com\/files\/2011\/10\/dojo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-886\" src=\"http:\/\/asianomad.biketravellers.com\/files\/2011\/10\/dojo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"257\" height=\"227\" \/><\/a>The rise of the cult of goh\u014d d\u014dji, guardian or servant spirits in the form of boys, was a particular medieval Japanese phenomenon vividly captured in both narrative accounts and visual representations.<\/p>\n<p>In illustrated scrolls (emaki) of this period, we often see strange-looking boys attacking malevolent spirits, acting as mediums in possession and exorcism rites, or appearing as attendants and saviors of monks or other practitioners of Buddhism. <a href=\"http:\/\/asianomad.biketravellers.com\/files\/2011\/10\/laughing_buddha.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-887\" src=\"http:\/\/asianomad.biketravellers.com\/files\/2011\/10\/laughing_buddha-300x224.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"267\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"http:\/\/asianomad.biketravellers.com\/files\/2011\/10\/laughing_buddha-300x224.jpg 300w, http:\/\/asianomad.biketravellers.com\/files\/2011\/10\/laughing_buddha.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 267px) 100vw, 267px\" \/><\/a>Frequently they served as attendant spirits of esoteric deities, such as Acalan\u0101tha (Fud\u014d My\u014d\u014d), Sarasvat\u012b (Benzaiten), and Vai\u015brava\u1e47a (Bishamonten). More generally, these child guardian spirits were personally attached to priests and hermits who had acquired power and holiness through their practice of austerities.<\/p>\n<p>Goh\u014d d\u014dji belonged to the larger family of guardian deities (goh\u014d zenshin).\u00a0 These deities were turbulent or fierce deities, who were often local deities or demonic beings such as yak\u1e63a-s, r\u0101k\u1e63asa-s, or n\u0101ga-s, and were initially opposed to Buddhism but after their conversion became protectors of the dharma. <a href=\"http:\/\/asianomad.biketravellers.com\/files\/2011\/10\/demon.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-888\" src=\"http:\/\/asianomad.biketravellers.com\/files\/2011\/10\/demon.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"277\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>Such deities or beings possessed the ambivalent character of \u015aaiva and Buddhist tantric deities: the more terrible and dangerous they were, the more powerful were the protection and benefits given to their worshippers. It was the dangerous power of these local deities that was harnessed to protect against and to destroy obstacles, both inner and outer. In addition to protecting the buddhadharma against its enemies and delivering punishments, they also rewarded believers and provided worldly benefits (genze riyaku), often becoming deities of happiness and prosperity (fukujin).<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a title=\"Guardian Spirits\" href=\"http:\/\/www.medievalists.net\/2011\/03\/23\/child-guardian-spirits-goho-doji-in-the-medieval-japanese-imaginaire\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> and download the article <a title=\"Guardian Spirits\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gypsyspiritride.info\/guardians.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The rise of the cult of goh\u014d d\u014dji, guardian or servant spirits in the form of boys, was a particular medieval Japanese phenomenon vividly captured in both narrative accounts and visual representations. In illustrated scrolls (emaki) of this period, we often see strange-looking boys attacking malevolent spirits, acting as mediums in possession and exorcism rites, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9093],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pied-piper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/asianomad.biketravellers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/asianomad.biketravellers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/asianomad.biketravellers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/asianomad.biketravellers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/359"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/asianomad.biketravellers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=885"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/asianomad.biketravellers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1078,"href":"http:\/\/asianomad.biketravellers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885\/revisions\/1078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/asianomad.biketravellers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/asianomad.biketravellers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/asianomad.biketravellers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}