Kasuga Shrine Mandala (detail) Japan; Kamakura period (1185-1333), 1300 Hanging scroll; colors on silk 42 1/2 x 16 in. (107.9 x 41.2 cm) Yuki Museum of Art, Osaka Important Cultural Property	The five Buddhist divinities connected with Kasuga Shrine appear above a bird’s-eye view of the shrine precinct. Jizo, with his shaven head and priest’s staff, is second from left; Juichimen Kannon and Monju are at far left and far right, respectively.

Such associations came to define the great spiritual complex formed by Kasuga Shrine and the temple Kofukuji in Nara. By the latter part of the twelfth century, the five kami of Kasuga were connected to five Buddhist divinities: the Buddhas Shakyamuni (called Shaka in Japan) and Bhaishajyaguru (Yakushi); and the bodhisattvas Kshitigarbha (Jizo), Eleven-Headed Avalokiteshvara (Juichimen Kannon), and Manjushri (Monju). The Kasuga kami and their associated Buddhist counterparts were known collectively as Kasuga Daimyojin, the great divinity of Kasuga, a sacred entity that became the overall symbol of the shrine-temple complex.

Inscriptions inside this Jizo image include prayers to Kasuga Daimyojin and the names of priests active at Kofukuji in the 1220s. The sculptor Zen’en also produced a Juichimen Kannon image in 1221; the inscriptions inside this work, now at Nara National Museum, are similar in content. A sculpture of Monju at Tokyo National Museum, which has not been examined for inscriptions, is believed to be Zen’en’s work from the same period based on its style and construction method. Considering the data in the inscriptions and the stylistic similarities between the three works, it is very likely that they once belonged to a set of five images created by Zen’en as representations of Kasuga Daimyojin, perhaps intended for installation in a Kofukuji branch temple.