or Achala (, "The Immovable", ), also known as (, "Immovable Lord") or (, "Noble Immovable Lord"), is a
wrathful deity and ''
dharmapala'' (protector of the
Dharma) prominent in
Vajrayana Buddhism and
East Asian Buddhism.
[, Jp. rel. dict., pp. 242–246]
Originally a minor deity described as a messenger or acolyte of the
buddha Vairocana, Acala later rose to prominence as an object of veneration in his own right as a remover of obstacles and destroyer of evil, eventually becoming seen as the wrathful manifestation of either Vairocana, the buddha
Akṣobhya, or the
bodhisattva
In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a person who has attained, or is striving towards, '' bodhi'' ('awakening', 'enlightenment') or Buddhahood. Often, the term specifically refers to a person who forgoes or delays personal nirvana or ''bodhi'' in ...
Mañjuśrī. In later texts, he is also called (, "Violent Wrathful One", ) or (, "Violent One of Great Wrath", ), the names by which he is more commonly known in countries like
Nepal
Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...
and
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...
.
In
East Asian esoteric Buddhism, Acala is classed among the
Wisdom King
A wisdom king (Sanskrit: विद्याराज; International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ''vidyārāja'', ) is a type of Wrathful deities, wrathful deity in East Asian Buddhism.
Whereas the Sanskrit name is translated lite ...
s () and is preeminent among the five Wisdom Kings of the
Womb Realm. Accordingly, he occupies an important hierarchical position in the
Mandala of the Two Realms. In
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
, he is known as Bùdòng Míngwáng (不動明王, "Immovable Wisdom King", the
Chinese translation of Sanskrit ''Acala(nātha) Vidyārāja''), while in Japan, he is called Fudō Myōō, the ''
on'yomi'' reading of his Chinese name.
[Fudō Myōō](_blank)
an
Myō-ō
Encyclopædia Britannica Acala (as Fudō) is one of the especially important and well-known divinities in
Japanese Buddhism, being especially venerated in the
Shingon,
Tendai,
Zen
Zen (; from Chinese: ''Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka phil ...
, and
Nichiren sects, as well as in
Shugendō.
Acala has been worshiped throughout the Middle Ages and into modern times in Nepal, Tibet, China and Japan, where sculptural and pictorial representations of him are most often found.
Origins and development
Acala first appears in the (不空羂索神変真言經,
pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...
: ''Bùkōng juànsuǒ shénbiàn zhēnyán jīng'', translated by
Bodhiruci circa 707-709 CE), where he is described as a servant or messenger of the
buddha Vairocana:
The first from the west in the northern quadrant is the acolyte Acala (不動使者). In his left hand he grasps a noose and in his right hand he holds a sword. He is seated in the half-lotus position.
More well-known, however, is the following passage from the ''
Mahāvairocana Tantra'' (also known as the ''Mahāvairocanābhisaṃbodhi Tantra'' or the ''Vairocana Sūtra'') which refers to Acala as one of the deities of the
Womb Realm Mandala:
The deity was apparently popular in India during the 8th-9th centuries as evident by the fact that six of the Sanskrit texts translated by the esoteric master
Amoghavajra into Chinese are devoted entirely to him.
Indeed, Acala's rise to a more prominent position in the Esoteric pantheon in East Asian Buddhism may be credited in part to the writings of Amoghavajra and his teacher
Vajrabodhi.
While some scholars have put forward the theory that Acala originated from the Hindu god
Shiva
Shiva (; , ), also known as Mahadeva (; , , Help:IPA/Sanskrit, ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐh and Hara, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the God in Hinduism, Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions w ...
, particularly his attributes of destruction and reincarnation,
Bernard Faure suggested the wrathful esoteric deity
Trailokyavijaya (whose name is an epithet of Shiva), the
Vedic fire god
Agni, and the guardian deity
Vajrapani to be other, more likely prototypes for Acala. He notes: "one could theoretically locate Acala's origins in a generic , but only in the sense that all Tantric deities can in one way or another be traced back to ."
Faure compares Acala to Vajrapani in that both were originally minor deities who eventually came to occupy important places in the Buddhist pantheon.
Acala is said to be a powerful deity who protects the faithful by burning away all impediments () and defilements (
), thus aiding them towards enlightenment.
[, under Fudo Myoo (in Japanese)] In a commentary on the ''Mahāvairocana Tantra'' by
Yi Xing, he is said to have manifested in the world following Vairocana's vow to save all beings, and that his primary function is to remove obstacles to enlightenment.
Indeed, the tantra instructs the ritual practitioner to recite Acala's mantras or to visualize himself as Acala in order to remove obstacles.
From a humble acolyte, Acala evolved into a powerful demon-subduing deity. In later texts such as the ''Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa Tantra'', Acala - under the name ("Violent Wrathful One") or ("Violent One of Great Wrath") - is portrayed as the "frightener of gods,
titans, and men, the destroyer of the strength of demons" who slays ghosts and evil spirits with his fierce anger.
In the ''Sādhanamālā'', the gods
Vishnu
Vishnu (; , , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism, and the god of preservation ( ...
, Shiva,
Brahma
Brahma (, ) is a Hindu god, referred to as "the Creator" within the Trimurti, the triple deity, trinity of Para Brahman, supreme divinity that includes Vishnu and Shiva.Jan Gonda (1969)The Hindu Trinity, Anthropos, Bd 63/64, H 1/2, pp. 212– ...
and
Kandarpa - described as "wicked" beings who subject humanity to endless
rebirth - are said to be terrified of Acala because he carries a rope to bind them.

In
Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, D ...
, Acala or Miyowa (མི་གཡོ་བ་,
Wylie: ''mi g.yo ba'') is considered as belonging to the ' ("vajra family", Tibetan: དོ་རྗེའི་རིགས་, ''dorjé rik''; Wylie: ''rdo rje'i rigs''), one of the
Five Buddha Families presided over by the buddha
Akṣobhya and may even be regarded, along with the other deities of the ''kula'', as an aspect or emanation of the latter.
He is thus sometimes depicted in South Asian art wearing a crown with an effigy of Akṣobhya.
In
Nepal
Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...
, Acala may also be identified as a manifestation of the
bodhisattva
In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a person who has attained, or is striving towards, '' bodhi'' ('awakening', 'enlightenment') or Buddhahood. Often, the term specifically refers to a person who forgoes or delays personal nirvana or ''bodhi'' in ...
Mañjuśrī.
He has a consort named Viśvavajrī in both the Nepalese and Tibetan traditions, with whom he is at times depicted in
yab-yum union.
By contrast, the ''sanrinjin'' (三輪身, "bodies of the three wheels") theory, based on Amoghavajra's writings and prevalent in
Japanese esoteric Buddhism (''
Mikkyō''), interprets Acala as an incarnation of Vairocana. In this system, the five chief
''vidyārājas'' or Wisdom Kings (明王, ''Myōō''), of which Acala is one, are interpreted as the wrathful manifestations (教令輪身, ''kyōryōrin-shin'', lit. ""embodiments of the wheel of injunction") of the
Five Great Buddhas, who appear both as gentle
bodhisattvas
In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a person who has attained, or is striving towards, ''Enlightenment in Buddhism, bodhi'' ('awakening', 'enlightenment') or Buddhahood. Often, the term specifically refers to a person who forgoes or delays personal n ...
to teach the
Dharma and also as fierce wrathful deities to subdue and convert hardened nonbelievers. Under this conceptualization, ''vidyārājas'' are ranked superior to , a different class of guardian deities. However, this interpretation, while common in Japan, is not necessarily universal: in
Nichiren-shū, for instance, Acala and
Rāgarāja (Aizen Myōō), the two ''vidyārājas'' who commonly feature in the
mandalas inscribed by
Nichiren, are seen as protective deities (外護神, ''gegoshin'') who respectively embody the two tenets of ''
hongaku'' ("original enlightenment") doctrine: "life and death (''
saṃsāra'') are precisely ''
nirvana''" (生死即涅槃, ''shōji soku nehan'') and "worldly passions (''kleśa'') are precisely enlightenment (
''bodhi'')" (煩悩即菩提, ''bonnō soku bodai'').
Iconography
The ''Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa Tantra'' description of Acala is a good summary of the deity's depiction in South Asian Buddhist art.
In Nepalese and Tibetan art, Acala is usually shown either kneeling on his left knee or standing astride, bearing a noose or
lasso (''pāśa'') and an upraised sword. Some depictions portray him trampling on the elephant-headed Vighnarāja (lit. "Ruler of Hindrances", a Buddhist equivalent to the Hindu god
Ganesha
Ganesha or Ganesh (, , ), also known as Ganapati, Vinayaka and Pillaiyar, is one of the best-known and most worshipped Deva (Hinduism), deities in the Hindu deities, Hindu pantheon and is the Supreme God in the Ganapatya sect. His depictions ...
, albeit interpreted negatively as one who causes obstacles), signifying his role as the destroyer of impediments to enlightenment. He may also be shown wearing a tiger skin, with snakes coiled around his arms and body.

By contrast, portrayals of Acala (Fudō) in Japan generally tend to conform to the description given in the ''Amoghapāśakalparāja Sūtra'' and the ''Mahāvairocana Tantra'': holding a lasso and a sword while sitting or standing on a rock (盤石座, ''banjakuza'') or a pile of hewn stones (瑟瑟座, ''shitsushitsuza''), with his braided hair hanging from the left of his head.
[ pg. 244] He may also be depicted with a lotus flower - a symbol of enlightenment - on his head (頂蓮, ''chōren''). Unlike the South Asian Acala, whose striding posture conveys movement and dynamism, the Japanese Fudō sits or stands erect, suggesting motionlessness and rigidity.
The sword he wields may or may not be flaming and is sometimes described generically as a or , which is descriptive of the fact that the sword's pommel is in the shape of the talon-like
vajra
The Vajra (, , ), is a legendary and ritualistic tool, symbolizing the properties of a diamond (indestructibility) and a thunderbolt (irresistible force). It is also described as a "ritual weapon". The use of the bell and vajra together as s ...
(金剛杵, ''kongō-sho''). It may also be referred to as a . In some cases, he is seen holding the "Kurikara sword" (倶利伽羅剣, ''Kurikara-ken''), a sword with the dragon (''
nāga'') king Kurikara (倶利伽羅; Sanskrit: ''Kulikāla-rāja'' or ''Kṛkāla-rāja'') coiled around it. The flaming
nimbus or halo behind Acala is commonly known in Japanese as the "
Garuda flame" (迦楼羅炎, ''karura-en'') after the mythical
fire-breathing bird from Indian mythology.

There are two main variations in the iconography of Acala / Fudō in Japan. The first type (observable in the earliest extant Japanese images of the deity) shows him with wide open, glaring eyes, straight hair braided in rows and two fangs pointed in the same direction; a lotus flower rests above his head. The second type (which first appeared in the late 9th century and became increasingly common during the late
Heian and
Kamakura
, officially , is a city of Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. It is located in the Kanto region on the island of Honshu. The city has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 people per km2 over the tota ...
periods), by contrast, portrays Acala with curly hair, one eye wide open and/or looking upwards, with the other narrowed and/or looking downwards, an iconographic trait known as the ''tenchigan'' (天地眼), "heaven-and-earth eyes". Similarly, one of his fangs is now shown as pointing up, with the other pointing down. In place of the lotus flower, images of this type may sport seven topknots.
Although the squinting left eye and inverted fangs of the second type ultimately derives from the description of Acala given in the ''Mahāvairocana Tantra'' and Yi Xing's commentary on the text ("with his lower
ighttooth he bites the upper-right side of his lip, and with his left
upper tooth he biteshis lower lip which sticks out"), these attributes were mostly absent in Chinese and earlier Japanese icons.
Acala's mismatched eyes and fangs were allegorically interpreted to signify both the duality and nonduality of his nature (and of all reality): the upward fang for instance was interpreted as symbolizing the process of elevation towards enlightenment, with the downward fang symbolizing the descent of enlightened beings into the world to teach sentient beings. The two fangs also symbolize the realms of buddhas and sentient beings,
yin and yang
Originating in Chinese philosophy, yin and yang (, ), also yinyang or yin-yang, is the concept of opposite cosmic principles or forces that interact, interconnect, and perpetuate each other. Yin and yang can be thought of as complementary an ...
, and male and female, with the nonduality of these two polar opposites being expressed by Acala's tightly closed lips.

Acala is commonly shown as having either black or blue skin (the ''Sādhanamālā'' describes his color as being "like that of the ''atasī'' (
flax
Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, ''Linum usitatissimum'', in the family Linaceae. It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climates. In 2022, France produced 75% of t ...
) flower," which may be either yellow or blue), though he may be at times portrayed in other colors. In Tibet, for instance, a variant of the kneeling Acala depiction shows him as being white in hue "like sunrise on a snow mountain reflecting many rays of light". In Japan, some images may depict Acala sporting a red (赤不動, ''Aka-Fudō'') or yellow (黄不動, ''Ki-Fudō'') complexion. The most famous example of the ''Aka-Fudō'' portrayal is a painting kept at
Myōō-in on
Mount Kōya (
Wakayama Prefecture) traditionally attributed to the
Heian period Tendai monk
Enchin. Legend claims that Enchin, inspired by a vision of Acala, painted the image using his own blood (thus explaining its red color), though recent analysis suggests that the image may have been actually created much later, during the
Kamakura period
The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...
. The most well-known image of the ''Ki-Fudō'' type, meanwhile, is enshrined in
Mii-dera (Onjō-ji) at the foot of
Mount Hiei in
Shiga Prefecture and is said to have been based on another vision that Enchin saw while practicing austerities in 838. The original Mii-dera ''Ki-Fudō'' is traditionally only shown to esoteric masters (''
ācārya''; 阿闍梨, ''ajari'') during initiation rites and is otherwise not shown to the public, though copies of it have been made. One such copy, made in the 12th century, is kept at
Manshu-in in
Kyoto
Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
.
The deity is usually depicted with one head and two arms, though a few portrayals show him with multiple heads, arms or legs. In Japan, a depiction of Acala with four arms is employed in subjugation rituals and earth-placating rituals (安鎮法, ''anchin-hō''); this four-armed form is identified in one text as "the lord of the various categories
gods
A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...
]." An iconographic depiction known as the "Two-Headed
Rāgarāja" (両頭愛染, ''Ryōzu Aizen'' or ''Ryōtō Aizen'') shows Acala combined with the wisdom king
Rāgarāja (Aizen).
Acolytes

Acala is sometimes described as having a retinue of acolytes, the number of which vary between sources, usually two or eight but sometimes thirty-six or even forty-eight. These represent the elemental, untamed forces of nature that the ritual practitioner seeks to harness.
The two boy servants or ''dōji'' (童子) most commonly depicted in Japanese iconographic portrayals are and , who also appear as the last two of the list of Acala's eight great ''dōji''.
Kiṃkara is depicted as white in color, with
his hands joined in respect, while Ceṭaka is red-skinned and holds a vajra in his left hand and a vajra staff in his right hand. The two are said to symbolize both
Dharma-essence and ignorance, respectively, and is held to be in charge of good and evil.

Kiṃkara and Ceṭaka are also sometimes interpreted as transformations or emanations of Acala himself. In a sense, they reflect Acala's original characterization as an attendant of Vairocana; indeed, their servile nature is reflected in their names (''Ceṭaka'' for instance means "slave") and their topknots, the mark of banished people and slaves. In other texts, they are also described as manifestations of
Avalokiteśvara (
Kannon) and Vajrapāṇi or as transformations of the dragon Kurikara, who is himself sometimes seen as one of Acala's various incarnations.
Two other notable ''dōji'' are Matijvala (恵光童子, ''Ekō-dōji'') and Matisādhu (恵喜童子, ''Eki-dōji''), the first two of Acala's eight great acolytes. Matijvala is depicted as white in color and holds a three-pronged vajra in his right hand and a lotus topped with a moon disk on his left, while Matisādhu is red and holds a trident in his right hand and a wish-fulfilling jewel (''
cintāmaṇi'') on his left. The eight acolytes as a whole symbolize the eight directions, with Matijvala and Matisādhu representing east and south, respectively.
Texts

As noted above, Acala appears in the ''Amoghapāśakalparāja Sūtra'' and the ''Vairocanābhisaṃbodhi Sūtra''. As Caṇḍaroṣaṇa or Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa, he is the primary deity of the ''Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa Tantra'' and is described in the ''Sādhanamālā''.
The Japanese esoteric Buddhist tradition and
Shugendō also make use of the following
apocryphal sutras on Acala:
* ''Sūtra of the Great Wrathful King Āryācala's Secret Dhāraṇī'' (聖無動尊大威怒王秘密陀羅尼経, ''Shō-Mudō-son daiifunnuō himitsu darani kyō'')
: A sūtra consisting of a discourse on Acala given by the bodhisattva
Vajrasattva (identified here with
Samantabhadra) to Mañjuśrī, set in "Vairocana's great assembly." The sutra describes Acala as being identical with the all-pervading ''
dharmakāya'', "
avingno fixed abode, but
wellingwithin the hearts of sentient beings" (無其所居、但住衆生心想之中).
* ''Āryācala Sūtra'' (仏説聖不動経, ''Bussetsu Shō-Fudō kyō'')
: A summarized version of the above sutra.
Translated into English, it runs as follows:
:
: To this text is often appended two litanies of the names of Acala's young acolytes (童子, ''dōji''), the 'thirty-six ''dōji'' (三十六童子, ''sanjuroku dōji'') and the 'eight great ''dōji'' (八大童子, ''hachi daidōji'').
* ''Sūtra on Reverencing the Secret Dhāraṇī of Āryācala'' (稽首聖無動尊秘密陀羅尼経, ''Keishu Shō-Mudō-son himitsu darani kyō'')
Bīja and mantra
The ''
bīja'' or seed syllables used to represent Acala in Japanese Buddhism are (हां / हाँ) and ''hāmmāṃ'' (हाम्मां / हाम्माँ), the latter being a combination of the two final ''bīja'' in his mantra: ''hāṃ māṃ'' (हां मां).
''Hāṃ'' is sometimes confounded with the similar-looking (हूं), prompting some writers to mistakenly identify Acala with other deities.
[cf. Getty, Alice (1988). The Gods of Northern Buddhism: Their History and Iconography. Courier Dover Publications. p.170, which mistakenly conflates the two Niō with Acala (Fudō) and Rāgarāja (Aizen).] The syllables are written using the
Siddham script and is conventionally read as ''kān'' (カーン) and ''kānmān'' (カーンマーン).
Three
mantras of Acala are considered to be the standard in Japan. The most widely known one, derived from the ''Mahāvairocana Tantra'' and popularly known as the "Mantra of Compassionate Help" (慈救呪, ''jikushu'' or ''jikuju''), goes as follows:

The "Short Mantra" (小呪, ''shōshu'') of Acala - also found in the ''Mahāvairocana Tantra'' - is as follows:
The longest of the three is the "Great Mantra" of Acala, also known as the "Fire Realm Mantra" (火界呪, ''kakaishu'' / ''kakaiju''):
Another mantra associated with the deity is ''
Oṃ caṇḍa-mahāroṣaṇa hūṃ phaṭ'', found in the ''Siddhaikavīra Tantra''. The text describes it as the "king of mantras" that dispels all evil and grants "whatever the follower of Mantrayāna desires".
Worship
Japan
Fudō Myōō (Acala), was never popular in Indian, Tibetan or even Chinese Buddhism, but in Japan it became the object of a flourishing cult with esoteric overtones.
The cult of Acala was first brought to Japan by the esoteric master
Kūkai, the founder of the Shingon school, and his successors, where it developed as part of the growing popularity of rituals for the protection of the state. While Acala was at first simply regarded as the ''
primus inter pares'' among the five wisdom kings, he gradually became a focus of worship in his own right, subsuming characteristics of the other four ''vidyarāja''s (who came to be perceived as emanating from him), and became installed as the
main deity (''honzon'') at many temples and outdoor shrines.
Acala, as a powerful vanquisher of evil, was regarded both as a protector of the imperial court and the nation as a whole (in which capacity he was invoked during state-sponsored rituals) and the personal guardian of ritual practitioners. Many eminent Buddhist priests like Kūkai,
Kakuban,
Ennin, Enchin, and
Sōō worshiped Acala as their patron deity, and stories of how he miraculously rescued his devotees in times of danger were widely circulated.
At temples dedicated to Acala, priests perform the , or ritual service to enlist the deity's power of purification to benefit the faithful. This rite routinely involves the use of the
as a purification tool.
Lay persons or monks in ''
yamabushi'' gear who go into rigorous training outdoors in the mountains often pray to small Acala statues or portable talismans that serve as his ''
honzon''.
This element of yamabushi training, known as
Shugendō, predates the introduction of Acala to Japan. At this time, figures such as , who appeared before the sect's founder,
En no Gyōja, or Vairocana, were commonly worshiped.
Once Acala was added to list of deities typically enshrined by the yamabushi monks, his images were either portable, or installed in ''
hokora
is a miniature Shinto shrine either found on the precincts of a larger shrine and dedicated to folk ''kami'', or on a street side, enshrining ''kami'' not under the jurisdiction of any large shrine.Encyclopedia of ShintoHokora Accessed on Dece ...
'' (outdoor shrines).
These statues would often be placed near waterfalls (a common training ground), deep in the mountains and in caves.
The
daimyo Takeda Shingen is known to have taken Fudō Myōō as his patron (particularly when he transitioned to being a lay monk in his later years), and has commissioned a statue of Fudō that is supposedly modelled after his face.
Acala also tops the list of
Thirteen Buddhas.
[, Japanese Dictionary, p.748, middle row, under 「志ふさん・ぶつ.. (十三)佛」] Thus
Shingon Buddhist mourners assign Fudō to the first seven days of service.
The first week is an important observance, but perhaps not as much as the observance of "seven times seven days" (i.e. 49 days) signifying the end of the "intermediate state" (
bardo).
Literature on Shingon Buddhist ritual will explain that Sanskrit "seed syllables",
mantras and
mudras are attendant to each of the Buddhas for each observance period. But the scholarly consensus seems to be that invocation of the "Thirteen Buddhas" had evolved later, around the 14th century
and became widespread by the following century,
so it is doubtful that this practice was part of Kūkai's original teachings.
China

Bùdòng Míngwáng (Acala) worship in China was first introduced into China during the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...
after the translation of esoteric tantras associated with him by monks such as Amoghavajra and Vajrabodhi. Iconography of Acala has been depicted infrequently in some temples and grottoes from the Tang through to contemporaneous times, usually as part of a set depicting the
Eight Wisdom Kings or
Ten Wisdom Kings, In modern times, he is revered as one of the eight Buddhist guardians of the
Chinese zodiac and specifically considered to be the protector of those born in the year of the Rooster. He is also frequently invoked during esoteric Chinese Buddhist rituals, such as the
Shuilu Fahui ceremony, along with the other Wisdom Kings where they are given offerings and intreated to expel evil from the ritual platform.
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...
.">
File:Tang Acala Vidyaraja (14372153865).jpg
File:Tang Acala Vidyaraja (14185590020).jpg
File:Tang Acala Vidyaraja (9912784335).jpg
) as an incarnation of Vairocana (the "Great Sun Buddha") in a similar vein as Acala. Indeed, Acala's Mantra of Compassionate Help is presented in the text as Smokey's "great mantra."
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'' series invokes Acala through the Sanskrit chant of the Mantra of Compassionate Help during her "''Fire Soul Bird''" attack. Acala is flashed multiple times as a shadowed figure in flames, consistent with Japanese iconography, and in line with Sailor Mars's element of fire.