Dakini

Kanji: 荼枳尼天
Kana: だきにてん
Pronunciation: dakini-ten

TRANSLATION: None — a transliteration of the Sanskrit term "ḍākinī."
ALTERNATE NAMES: Dakiniten; Daten; Shinko'ō; Kiko Tennō; Toyokawa Dakini Shinten
ORIGIN: Heian-period Buddhist tradition; esoteric Shingon and Tendai texts

HABITAT: Shrines, temples, and the open sky
DIET: Life force and the prayers of worshipers

ABILITIES:

• Flight upon a white fox mount
• Wish-granting through the cintamani jewel
• Fortune-bringing in rice, grain, and worldly success
• Possession of foxes and the power to cause kitsune-tsuki
• Six-month death-foresight
• Esoteric black magic

WEAKNESSES:

• Bound by her Buddhist vows
• Orthodox prayers and sutras

OVERVIEW: Dakini is a Japanese Buddhist goddess who moves through the sky on a flying white fox. She is a central figure in Shingon esoteric Buddhism and is joined to the Inari fox cult.

APPEARANCE: Dakini appears as a beautiful celestial woman with a calm and noble face. She wears the robes of a Tang Chinese court lady or the ornaments of a bodhisattva. Dakini moves side-saddle on a large white fox that flies through the sky. In one hand she holds a wish-granting jewel, and in the other she holds a sword. Her body shows both a soft divine glow and a sharp, dangerous edge.

BEHAVIOR: Dakini grants any wish, but the older texts say her favors take life force in return. She supports the wisdom goddess Benzaiten and the grain god Daikokuten in the Shingon pantheon. Dakini rules over all foxes and the secret rites of fox magic. Her nature stays between buddha and demon, which is why her cult is feared as much as it is loved.

INTERACTIONS: Emperors and shoguns once called on Dakini for political power, and her mantra became part of the imperial enthronement rite. In the Genpei seisuiki, the samurai Taira no Kiyomori let a wounded fox go free, and the fox said she was Dakini's servant. His clan came to rule Japan after he began to ask the goddess for help.

OTHER FORMS: Dakini is considered the Buddhist "true form" of Inari Okami in the honji-suijaku system. Through her Indian roots she is joined to the Hindu goddess Kali and the fierce ḍākinīs who served her. In some Shingon texts Dakini appears as a male or androgynous bodhisattva and is called an emanation of the buddha Vairocana.