Hachiman
Hachiman is a kami worshiped together with Miroku Bosatsu (Maitreya) at Usa Hachiman-gū. He was declared to be the Dharma's tutelary kami and, a little later, a bosatsu. A shrine for Hachiman was erected within the temple grounds of Tōdai-ji in Nara, according to the legend because of a wish expressed by the kami himself.
↻ synthesized from 3 sources
When
- First attested
- 600 CE
- Attested period
- 600 – 2020
- Historical notes
- Worshiped from the 7th century onwards.
Relationships
- co occurs with
- Tokusō Daigongen, Kanda Myōjin, Kasuga kami, Kami Inari, Manjushri, Guan Yu, Vajrasattva, Vasudhara, Samantabhadra, Kṣitigarbha, Ākāśagarbha, Cundī, Sūryaprabha, Candraprabha, Sarvanivāraṇaviṣkambhin, Prajñāpāramitā-devi, Bhaiṣajyasamudgata, Bhaiṣajyarāja, Akṣayamati, Ushnishavijaya, Cintamanicakra, Mahāsthāmaprāpta, Avalokiteshvara, Tamonten, Kami, qié-lán-shen, Maitreya, Taras, Vajrapāṇi, Bishamonten
- allied with
- Miroku Bosatsu
Mentioned by
Sources
Source passages
“Hachiman played an important role in the evolution of temple-shrines, and is still the tutelary kami of many important temples, among them Tōdai-ji, Daian-ji, Yakushi-ji and Tō-ji.”
#9265 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001
“Hachiman in Japanese Buddhism, who is venerated as the Bodhisattva Hachiman (Japanese: 八幡大菩薩; Rōmaji: Hachiman Daibosatsu).”
#22071 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5
“He is also associated with Hachiman. Especially in the Shingon tradition that gives some place and worth to this hybrid character of Bishamon although most Mahayana temples have Bishamon and his counterpart as guardians at the entrance gate.”
#36436 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001