Jinja Taishō　深沙大将

Also read Jinja Daishō. Lit. General Deep-Sand. A divinity said to have appeared in a dream to the renowned Chinese Buddhist pilgrim and translator Xuanzang (Jp: Genjō 玄奘; 600/602-664) in order to encourage him when he had become lost in the desert in Central Asia on his way to India.
According to the monk Jōgyō 常暁 (?-866), who introduced this deity to Japan, his cult was extremely popular in China at the time, and he was regarded as a manifestation of *Tamonten 多聞天, guardian of the northern direction *Bishamonten 毘沙門天. He may assume one of a variety of fearsome two-armed forms, often with snakes coiled around his wrists and ankles and a string of skulls around his neck. His belly is adorned with a child's face, he wears a tiger's skin around his waist, and his knees may each be covered by an elephant's head hanging down from his underskirt. A well-known statue of him is that by Kaikei 快慶 (?1183-1236?) at Kongōin 金剛院 in Maizuru 舞鶴, Kyoto, and others include those at Tōdaiji 東大寺 in Nara and Yokokuraji 横蔵寺 in Gifu Prefecture. Jinja Taishō is also often found together with Xuanzang in depictions of the sixteen Good deities *jūrokuzenshin 十六善神, regarded as tutelary gods of the 600-fascicle Daihannyakyō 大般若経 (The Great Wisdom Sutra) which was translated into Chinese by Xuanzang.