Kongō rikishi 金剛力士

Also *Niō 仁王, *Shukongōshin 執金剛神. Most commonly, these are the two threatening figures placed in the outer gates of a temple, one of which *agyō 阿形 has his mouth open, while the other, ungyō 吽形, is shown with his mouth closed. Since the Sanskrit name Vajradhara was translated into Chinese in a number of different ways, including Shukongōshin, Niō and Kongō rikishi, scholars consider them the same deity; however, the names Kongō rikishi or Niō refer to public figures used as gate guardians from the Nara period to the present. They are muscular, threatening and usually dressed in an Indian style with their torsos bare. Shukongōshin is a rare, esoteric deity, shown in armor, who appears as a single-pointed vajra. Examples of a figure holding a vajra and protecting the Buddha appear in India and in China; in Japan, the oldest examples of the Kongō rikishi are on the right and left corners of the Hakuhō period copper panel of Hasedera 長谷寺; while the oldest examples of sculptures in gates are those of the Hōryūji *Chūmon 法隆寺中門, which date from 711. Famous examples of the Kongō rikishi include the Nara period set in the Tōdaiji *Hokkedō 東大寺法華堂 (Sangatsudō 三月堂, in armor), the Tōdaiji *Nandaimon 東大寺南大門 set of 1203. The Nara period sculpture of Shukongōshin in the Tōdaiji Hokkedō is a particularly famous sculpture, to which legend attaches magical powers.