Keywords
Art History
Sculpture
A sword, with a blade at one end and a handle topped by three prongs shaped like a *sankosho 三鈷杵. Originally used by hermits and priests travelling through mountain areas to clear wild plants in their path, the sword took on a symbolic meaning in Buddhist prayers as a weapon to chase away the devil. A famous Kamakura period example can be seen in Kuramadera 鞍馬寺, Kyoto. The sankozuka-no-ken is often an attribute *jimotsu 持物 held by Buddhist figures such as *Senju Kannon 千手観音, *Monju 文殊 and *Fudō Myōō 不動明王.