Also known as Seishoku Daikongō Yasha 青色大金剛薬叉. A deity who protects against diseases believed to be caused by demons. Shōmen Kongō is one of the raksasa lords and rules the east. In Buddhist texts he is sometimes said to have been a demon who originally caused disease but who was then conquered, and he re-dedicated himself as a protector against disease. Shōmen Kongō often appears as an angry deity with a blue body and four arms. He carries a three-pronged vajra *kongōsho 金剛杵 in his upper right hand, a staff *shakujō 錫杖 in his lower right hand, a cakra (J: rinpō 輪宝) in his upper left hand, and a noose in his lower left hand. These various implements are symbolic within Esoteric Buddhism. He may also be shown with two arms, six arms, or in other forms. He may be accompanied by two boys *dōji 童子 or by four demons.
The benefits to be obtained by worshipping Shōmen Kongō closely resembled those of worshipping kōshin 庚申 (also read kanoe-saru, the fifth monkey day of the Chinese calendar). Since the Kamakura period, Shōmen Kongō, being mixed with Daoism, became a deity of the cult of kōshin. This cult believed that on the eve of fifth monkey day, it was particularly easy to have your life shortened. In order to counteract this danger, believers stayed awake through the night, and on the kōshin day gathered before scrolls of Shōmen Kongō and Sarutahiko 猿田彦 to hold a devotional celebration. They also held festivities before carvings of the set of three monkeys, "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" (mizaru, kikazaru, iwazaru 見ざる, 聞かざる, 言わざる), who are believed to be related to the sacred monkeys of Hie Jinja 日吉神社, Shiga Prefecture.