shibutsu 四仏

Lit. "the Four Buddhas."

1　The first four Buddhas said to have appeared during the current era of Buddhist time known as the Auspicious Aeon (Sk: bhadra-kalpa; Jp: kengō 賢劫). They also correspond to the last four of the Seven Buddhas of the Past, kako shichibutsu 過去七仏. The four are: Kuruson 拘留孫, Kunagonmuni 拘那含牟尼, Kashō 迦葉, and *Shaka 釈迦.

2　A shortened form of shihō shibutsu 四方四仏 (Four Buddhas of the Four Directions). Mahayana Buddhism teaches that there are countless Buddhas existing in the past, present and future ages, and postulates the existence of an infinite number of world-systems, each with its own Buddha. These Buddhas came to be collectively known as the Buddhas of the Three Ages (of past, present and future) and Ten Directions (the four cardinal points, four intermediate directions, zenith and nadir) sanze jippō shobutsu 三世十方諸仏. Eventually, certain Buddhas and bodhisattvas came to be associated with particular directions. We usually find *Ashuku 阿しゅく or *Yakushi 薬師 in the east, *Amida 阿弥陀 in the west, *Miroku 弥勒 in the south, and Shaka in the north. The earliest example of a group of Four Buddhas, found in the Konkōmyōkyō 金光明経 (Sk: Suvarnaprabhasa-sutra; Golden Splendor Scripture, ca. 4th century), is: Ashuku (east), Hōshō 宝生 (south), Muryōju 無量寿=Amida (west), and Tenkuon 天鼓音 (north). With the addition of a central Buddha there evolves, particularly in Esoteric teachings (ca. 7th century), the concept of Five Buddhas gobutsu 五仏, which in turn develops into the five principal Buddhas of the main esoteric mandalas *mandara 曼荼羅--the *Taizōkai mandara 胎蔵界曼荼羅 and *Kongōkai mandara 金剛界曼荼羅. The central Buddha of both is *Dainichi 大日, while the four surrounding Buddhas differ somewhat. In the Taizōkai, in a clockwise direction starting from the east (right), they are: Hōdō 宝幢, Kaifukeō 開敷華王, Muryōju, and Tenkuraion 天鼓雷音. In the Kongōkai, they are Ashuku, Hōshō, Muryōju, and Fukū jōju 不空成就. Thus the concept of the Four Buddhas has played an important role in the development of the mandala.