Also known as Kurika 矩里迦, a transliteration of Sanskrit Kulika, the name of a dragon-king *ryū 龍 mentioned in Indian legends. In this connection he is also known as Kurikara Ryū 倶利迦羅龍 (Dragon Kurikara), sometimes with the addition of ō 王, to read Dragon king Kurikara. Kurikara could also be an abbreviated transliteration of Kulika raja (King Kulika) or of Kulika-nagaraja (Dragon king Kulika). In Esoteric Buddhism mikkyō 密教 he is regarded as a manifestation of *Fudō Myōō 不動明王 and is also known as Kurikara Fudō 倶利迦羅不動 or Kurikara Myōō 倶利迦羅明王. He assumes the form of a flame-wreathed snake or dragon coiled around an upright sword, with his open mouth about to swallow the tip of the weapon, which is called the Kurikara sword, kurikaraken 倶利迦羅剣. According to the Kurikara Ryūō Daranikyō 倶利迦羅龍王陀羅尼経, this manifestation of Fudō had its origins in a contest between Fudō and a non-Buddhist heretic in the course of which Fudō transformed himself first into a sword and then into the dragon Kurikara and threatened to devour the sword into which the heretic had changed himself. Alternatively the dragon and sword are sometimes said to represent the noose and sword held by Fudō and images of Kurikara may be used as a substitute for Fudō as for example on the lid of a lacquered sutra box *kyōbako 経箱 from the Heian period belonging to Taimadera 当麻寺 in Nara, where he is flanked by Fudō's two attendants *Kongara dōji 矜羯羅童子and *Seitaka dōji 制た迦童子. Early statuary representations are rare: that kept at Ryūkōin 龍光院 Mt. Kōya 高野 in Wakayama Prefecture, inside a small shrine *zushi 厨子 is thought to date from the Kamakura period, although temple tradition holds that the sword (42.2 cm) was brought back to Japan by *Kūkai 空海 (774-835). The largest completely wooden image (183.2 cm), dating from the late Heian period, is kept at Kotakeji 小武寺 in Ōita Prefecture. The Kurikara pattern, kurikara-mon 倶利迦羅紋 is also a popular motif in tattoos irezumi 入墨.