seishuku　星宿

KEY WORD :　 art history / iconography

Also read shoshuku; also shukuyou 宿曜. Meaning constellation, this term refers in Buddhist iconography to planets, stars, constellations and other heavenly bodies that have been deified and incorporated into Buddhism. They include the nine planets, kuyou 九曜 or kushitsu 九執 ; the sun, moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rago 羅ご (Sk: Rahu), and Keito 計都 (Sk: Ketu), the twelve houses of the zodiac, juniku or juunikyuu 十二宮, the twenty-eight lunar mansions *nijuuhasshuku 二十八宿, and *Myouken 妙見 (deification of the Polestar or Big Dipper). In addition, Nitten 日天 (sun) and Gatten 月天 (moon) and perhaps *Nikkou Gakkou 日光･月光 might also be broadly included in this category. The twelve houses and twenty-eight lunar mansions are depicted in the Gekongoubu-in 外金剛部院 of the Matrix mandala *Taizoukai mandara 胎蔵界曼荼羅, and there are a number of other mandalas *mandara 曼荼羅, generically known as *hoshi mandara 星曼荼羅, dedicated to these entities *hokuto mandara 北斗曼荼羅. The term sidereal division, seishukubu 星宿部 is sometimes used as a collective designation for this category of Buddhist deities.

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