Also Hie Sannō mandara 日吉山王曼荼羅. A class of Shinto devotional paintings having to do with Hie Sannōsha 日吉山王社 (also popularly called Hiyoshi Sannōsha), a shrine at the foot of Mt. Hiei 比叡 in Sakamoto 坂本 in Shiga Prefecture. The name Sannō was given to the original deity Ōyamagui 大山咋 by the monk Saichō 最澄 (766-822) when he returned from China where he had been studying, and comes from the Chinese god who protected Mount Tientai (Jp: Tendai 天台). As at many other shrines, the name of the deity served as his collective name and as the name of the shrine.
There are a total of twenty-one shrines at the site known collectively as the Sannō Nijūissha 山王二十一社 but also split into three groups of seven. The first of these is the Upper Seven Sannō Shrines, Sannō kami no shichisha 山王上七社 which forms the core of Sannō. It comprises four sanctuaries in the eastern group and three in the western group. The eastern group is dominated by the Ninomiya 二宮, where Ōyamagui (who came to be called Kobie no kami 小比叡神, also read Kohiegami) was worshipped and the western group is led by the Ōmiya 大宮, where the deity was Ōkuninushi no mikoto 大国主命 or Ōnamuchi no kami 大己貴神 (who came to be called Ōbie no kami 大比叡神, also read Ohiegami). Both of these kami are mentioned as present by Kojiki 古事記 (712). Ōyamagui was the original presence jinushigami 地主神, and Ōmonushi was brought from Miwa 三輪 in 668 by the Emperor Tenji 天智 (626-671), whose capital was in Ōtsu 大津. These seven Shrines are associated with Tendai traditions concerning the seven stars of the Big Dipper, Hokuto shichisei 北斗七星. The Sannō Nijūissha is completed by the Middle and Lower groups of seven shrines which are composed of more minor sanctuaries. The shrine buildings are spread over a considerable area at the foot of Mt. Hiei and at the foot of a small hill called Hachiōjisan 八王子山, which is the shrine's sacred mountain shintaizan 神体山 (see *shintai 神体). At the summit of this hill, buildings are constructed around a boulder. In the Kamakura period, the area was filled with Shinto and Buddhist buildings and could be called the One Hundred and Eight Inner and One Hundred and Eight Outer Shrines.
In 788 Saichō called upon the deity to act as the guardian of his temple, which became Enryakuji 延暦寺. By the late 12th century, the shrine and temple together formed a well developed *honji suijaku 本地垂迹 complex. The shrine's cult was particularly important to the temples on Mt. Hiei, to the temples and residences in Sakamoto, and to devotional confraternities kō 講. Like the Kasuga cult (see *Kasuga mandara 春日曼荼羅), the Sannō cult also spread in the areas where the shrine was powerful, and branch shrines developed. The deity has a certain notoriety as the protector and religious weapon of the Enryakuji monks in the descents on the capital that they began to make in the late 11th century. The considerable power of Enryakuji was not entirely destroyed until 1571 when Oda Nobunaga 織田信長 (1534-82) burned the temples and scattered the monks. When the temple was re-established, it and other temples were no longer allowed large land-holdings and other economic advantages; and with all government power removed from Kyoto they also lost the advantages of having court connections. The shrine suffered again in the separation of Shinto and Buddhism shinbutsu bunri 神仏分離 in 1868, losing much syncretic art.
Most Sannō mandara show the deities in their shrines, on pedestals against screens or ranged in tiers against a conventionalized landscape background, sometimes in a conceptual building (with a foundation, but without walls or a roof). Most paintings show the deities of the Upper Seven Sannō Shrines, either in their Buddhsit or Shinto form. The three most revered kami as found in Sannō mandara are the Ninomiya whose Buddhist counterpart *honjibutsu 本地仏 is *Yakushi 薬師, the Ōmiya, whose honjibutsu is *Shaka 釈迦, and the Shōshinji 聖真子 whose honjibutsu is *Amida 阿弥陀. Although there are paintings of both the kami and their honjibutsu, there do not seem to be shaji mandara 社寺曼荼羅 (paintings of the shrine and temple together). The monkey is the messenger tsukai 使い of Sannō and can be found on the steps of buildings or in the landscape of the paintings. Sometimes a dressed monkey deity appears among the shrine kami in paintings. Paintings of single deities are less common than in the art of the Kasuga cult, but the Shōshinji was identified with Hachiman 八幡 (see *sōgyō Hachiman 僧形八幡) and there are paintings of Hachiman as a youth that are called Sannō mandara. Sannō mandara were used on Mt. Hiei and in affiliated temples to express the protection of the shine and by devotional confraternities in regular meetings: they were also hung in Tendai temples for certain rituals. As with Kasuga mandara (and in contrast to *Kumano mandara 熊野曼荼羅), Sannō mandara lack folk appeal and are most characteristically paintings of high quality dating from the Kamakura through Muromachi periods.
Along with the vertical scrolls called mandara, there is also an illustrated history of the wonders of the shrine dated 1288, Sannō reigenki 山王霊験記 (Hie Jinja 日枝神社, Numazu 沼津, Shizuoka Prefecture), and there are screen paintings of the shrine's festival *Hie Sannō matsuri 日吉山王祭. These screen paintings, from Momoyama and Edo periods, stress the popular appeal of this large, lively festival. There are fine *miya mandara 宮曼荼羅 that show the shrine buildings set below and on an exaggeratedly large Hachiōjisan. These display the meticulous attention to architectural detail that suggests their use as records, but also present a close approximation of the real landscape and shrine for use in devotion. The first recorded instance of the making of a Sannō mandara occurs in Gyokuyō 玉葉, the diary of Kujō Kanezane 九条兼実 (1149-1207), and refers to a scroll painting of the deities. Extant paintings date from the middle of the Kamakura period.