|KEY WORD : art history / iconography|
|Also known as Kurika 矩里迦, a transliteration of Sanskrit Kulika, the name of a dragon-king *ryuu 龍 mentioned in Indian legends. In this connection he is also known as Kurikara Ryuu 倶利迦羅龍 (Dragon Kurikara), sometimes with the addition of ou 王, to read Dragon king Kurikara. Kurikara could also be an abbreviated transliteration of Kulika raja (King Kulika), or of Kulika-nagaraja (Dragon king Kulika). In Esoteric Buddhism mikkyou 密教 he is regarded as a manifestation of *Fudou Myouou 不動明王 and is also known as Kurikara Fudou 倶利迦羅不動 or Kurikara Myouou 倶利迦羅明王. He assumes the form of a flame-wreathed snake or dragon coiled around an upright sword, with his open mouth about to swallow the tip of the weapon, which is called the Kurikara sword, kurikaraken 倶利迦羅剣. According to the KURIKARA RYUUOU DARANIKYOU 倶利迦羅龍王陀羅尼経, this manifestation of Fudou had its origins in a contest between Fudou and a non-Buddhist heretic in the course of which Fudou transformed himself first into a sword and then into the dragon Kurikara and threatened to devour the sword into which the heretic had changed himself. Alternatively the dragon and sword are sometimes said to represent the noose and sword held by Fudou and images of Kurikara may be used as a substitute for Fudou as for example on the lid of a lacquered sutra box *kyoubako 経箱 from the Heian period belonging to Taimadera 当麻寺 in Nara, where he is flanked by Fudou's two attendants *Kongara douji 矜羯羅童子 and *Seitaka douji 制た迦童子. Early statuary representations are rare: that kept at Ryuukouin 龍光院 Mt. Kouya 高野 in Wakayama prefecture, inside a small shrine *zushi 厨子 is thought to date from the Kamakura period, although temple tradition holds that the sword (42.2cm) was brought back to Japan by *Kuukai 空海 (774-835). The largest completely wooden image (183.2cm), dating from the late Heian period, is kept at Kotakeji 小武寺 in Ooita prefecture. The Kurikara pattern, kurikara-mon 倶利迦羅紋 is also a popular motif in tattoos irezumi 入墨.|
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