Four Guardian Kings. Pre-Buddhist Indian deities including *Taishakuten 帝釈天 and *Bonten 梵天 who appear in legends to help the Buddha and protect his teachings. In Japan they are shown as martial figures wearing Chinese armor. Shitennō usually stand on demons called *jaki 邪鬼. Sculptures of shitennō are placed at the four corners of the dais that supported the deities in a Buddhist hall, as in the lecture hall *Kōdō 講堂 of Tōji 東寺 (Kyōōgokokuji 教王護国寺), Kyoto. This is appropriate because the dais *shumidan 須弥壇 represents Mt. Sumeru (Jp: *Shumisen 須弥山), the huge mountain in the center of the Buddhist universe. On each side of Shumisen is a shitennō, and they together preside over the heaven called the shitennōten 四天王天, the first of the six heavens, which is the realm of desire yokkai 欲界.
In the east is *Jikokuten 持国天, in the south *Zōchōten 増長天, in the west *Kōmokuten 広目天, and in the north *Tamonten 多聞天. They protect the Tōriten とう利天 above, ruled by Taishakuten. The Konkōmyō saishōōkyō 金光明最勝王経 teaches that shitennō, among other deities, will protect the country of the king who honors them and their devotees. According to the Nihongi 日本紀 (Chronicle of Japan), Shōtoku Taishi 聖徳太子 (574-622, see *Shōtoku Taishi-zō 聖徳太子像) prayed for victory over Soga no Umako 蘇我馬子 (?-626) in battle and built Shitennōji 四天王寺 in commemoration of his success. At the time of Emperor Shōmu 聖武 (r. 724-49) belief in the power of the shitennō and the Konkōmyō saishōōkyō reached a peak, but the shitennō continued to be revered after the formal introduction of Shingon 真言 Buddhism in the early 9th century. There was heightened interest in the shitennō at the time of the threat of a Mongol invasion in the second half of the 13th century. However, after this their cult did not spread among the general public.
The oldest set of shitennō in Japan is that in the main hall *Kondō 金堂 of Hōryūji 法隆寺 in Nara, dating from the mid-7th century. Later sculptures are all more dynamic, and include those at Taimadera 当麻寺 (late 7th-early 8th century) in Nara; in the Kaidan-in 戒壇院 of Tōdaiji 東大寺 (8th century), Nara; in the *Hokuendō 北円堂 of Kōfukuji 興福寺 (791, originally in Daianji 大安寺), Nara; in the Kōdō of Tōji (839); of Jōruriji 浄瑠璃寺 (11th-12th century) in Kyoto. The shitennō also often appear in paintings, set at the four corners of a mandala *mandara 曼荼羅, or placed in a group as guardians .