jūni shinshō 十二神将

Also jūni yakusha taishō 十二薬叉大将, jūni shinshō 十二神王. The twelve protective deities *Yasha 夜叉 who accompany *Yakushi 薬師. According to the Yakushi rurikōnyorai hongan kudokukyō 薬師瑠璃光如来本願功徳経, upon hearing the Buddha expound the worthiness of Yakushi, these Yasha chanted his name and vowed to protect those who spread his sutra. Thus, they are specifically the protectors of those who are devoted to Yakushi and who chant the Yakushikyō 薬師経. Considered emanations of Yakushi, each of the twelve had 7,000 emanations, adding up to the number 84,000. Because the names of the jūni shinshō were transliterated from Sanskrit to Chinese, they tend to vary.
Although the appearance of the jūni shinshō is not described in the very early Chinese translation of the Yakushikyō, images appear to have been made in China from the Sui period onward, and at an early point it appears that they were coordinated with the twelve emblematic animals jūnishi 十二支. In Cave number 220 of the Dunhuang Caves (Jp; Tonkō sekkutsu 敦煌石窟), carved in 642, the jūni shinshō who appear in the depictions of Yakushi's Pure Land Yakushi jōdo hensō 薬師浄土変相 have animals on their crowns. In Japan the association of the jūnishi and the jūni shinshō appears in both the iconographic manuals *Kakuzenshō 覚禅抄 and Asabashō 阿婆縛抄; while the Yakushi nyorai kōshiki 薬師如来講式, written by Saichō 最澄 (767-822), mentions that the jūni shinshō have jurisdiction over the twelve hours. Although one might expect the earliest representations of the jūni shinshō in Japan to show the animals of the jūnishi, they are not indicated in either the Hōryūji *Kondō 法隆寺金堂 painting or the Shin'yakushiji 新薬師寺 sculptures. Instead, they appear from the Kamakura period on, when the jūni shinshō linked to the function of the jūnishi, protected time (i.e. twelve hours, twelve days, and twelve months) as well as ritual space.
The earliest representations of the jūni shinshō in Japan are the four figures painted in Yakushi's Pure Land on one wall of the Hōryūji Kondō. There are records that indicate that eight figures were part of the sculptural group that forms the Yakushi jōdo in Kōfukuji *Gojū-no-tō 興福寺五重塔. The oldest extant sculptures of the Jūni Shinshō are from the Nara period set in Shin'yakushiji in Nara. There are also the late Heian period relief sculptures at Kōfukuji. There are also sculptures (1064) by Chōzei 長勢 in Kōryūji 広隆寺, and the Kamakura period sculptures in Kōfukuji Tōkondō 東金堂. Paintings include the Yōchi in 桜池院 Yakushi Jūni Shinshō, Wakayama Prefecture, from the end of the Heian period. From the Kamakura period on representations of the jūni shinshō were common.