A reincarnation of Vairocana, embodying the ultimate reality and source of all wisdom.
Not specified in source material.
Embodies the wisdom and compassion associated with the Buddha.
Akuma
Akuma (悪魔／あくま) in Japanese sources is an evil spirit, devil, or demon associated with misfortune and mental disturbance. The term appears in Buddhist texts and Heian-period literature and was later used to translate the Christian figure of Satan, as well as the Buddhist Mara.
Datsue-ba
A supernatural old-woman ogress figure in Japanese Buddhist underworld imagery who sits by the Sanzu River and strips the deceased of their garments (or, in some accounts, their skin) as part of post-mortem judgement. She functions as a liminal, procedural agent within Ten Kings / Six Realms iconography rather than as a creator or cosmic force.
Five Wisdom Kings
A class of wrathful, mantric protector-deities in East Asian Mahāyāna (notably Japanese) Buddhism, identified with the Sanskrit Vidyārāja and Japanese Myō-ō and described in sources as guardians of the cosmic Buddha Dainichi (Vairocana) and of esoteric teachings.
Gohō dōji
A guardian attendant spirit in Japanese Buddhist folklore depicted as a youthful protector devoted to defending the Dharma and assisting followers of Buddhist teaching. Attested in medieval narrative collections and illustrated emaki, the figure appears as a cultic attendant associated with dharmapāla-type protection.
Japanese dragon
A class of large serpentine beings in Japanese myth that function variously as water deities, regional kami, Buddhist nāga/dragon kings, and shapeshifting supernatural creatures associated with seas, rivers, rain and related powers.
Kalaviṅka
A Buddhist fantastical creature described as a human-headed, bird-bodied being famed for its exquisite, Dharma-preaching voice; represented across South, East, and Southeast Asian Buddhist art and liturgical contexts with regional iconographic variation.
Karura
A Japanese Buddhist divine creature with a human torso and avian head, derived from the Sanskrit garuḍa. Portrayed as an enormous, fire-breathing predator of serpents and incorporated into Buddhist guardian retinues and ritual-iconographic contexts in Japan.
Tennin
Tennin (天人) are celestial, person-like beings in the Japanese Buddhist framework who serve as heavenly attendants, dancers, and companions to Buddhas and bodhisattvas. The concept derives from an Indo-Chinese-Buddhist lineage (compare apsaras) and appears widely in Japanese religious art, Noh theater, and local narrative motifs such as the hagoromo (feather-robe) story.
Tentōki and Ryūtōki
Tentōki (天燈鬼) and Ryūtōki (龍燈鬼) are small demon‑like attendant figures in Japanese Buddhist temple iconography. Typically shown as oni‑like beings carrying lanterns, they function as subjugated attendants who offer light to the Historical Buddha and symbolize the Shitennō’s power to repel evil.
Yūrei
Yūrei (幽霊) are spirits of the dead in Japanese folklore who remain bound to the world of the living rather than having completed transition to an afterlife. They are a culturally specific category of ghost/spirits, often discussed alongside related terms such as bōrei and shiryō and appearing widely in literary, visual, and local legend contexts.
Oswald Bastable
Oswald Bastable is a fictional human character whose name appears in two distinct literary traditions: as a child narrator in Edith Nesbit's turn-of-the-century Bastable stories (1899–1905) and as a reused, reinterpreted adult military figure in Michael Moorcock's 20th-century alternate-history/speculative fiction. Moorcock explicitly reused the name to evoke a particular Fabian liberal-imperial milieu rather than to create a direct sequel to Nesbit's tales.
Otoroshi
Otoroshi is an Edo-period yōkai type known from painted emaki (picture-scrolls) and yōkai compendia. Primarily an image-and-name pairing with little classical explanatory prose, it is depicted as a fearsome, hair-covered creature that recurs across several visual catalogues of supernatural beings.
Community Record
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