五大明王
Japanese
![](../I/m/Wisdom_kings.jpg)
五大明王 (Go Dai Myōō): the Five Wisdom Kings are the blue figures to the right in this image.
Kanji in this term | |||
---|---|---|---|
五 | 大 | 明 | 王 |
ご Grade: 1 |
だい Grade: 1 |
みょう Grade: 2 |
おう Grade: 1 |
on’yomi |
Etymology
Buddhist term, imported into Japanese when Buddhism was introduced to Japan, some time during the Kofun, Asuka, and Nara periods.
From Middle Chinese 五大明王 (*ngǒ *dhɑ̀i *miæng *hiuɑng, literally “five great wisdom kings”). The 明王 (*miæng *hiuɑng, “wisdom king”) portion is a translation of Sanskrit विद्याराज (vidyārāja, “knowledge king”).
Pronunciation
Proper noun
五大明王 (hiragana ごだいみょうおう, rōmaji Go Dai Myōō)
- the Five Wisdom Kings in Vajrayana Buddhism
Usage notes
When borrowed into English, this term is more often romanized as Godai Myōō.
Synonyms
- 五大尊 (ごだいそん, Go Dai Son): the Five Great Reverences
- 五大尊明王 (ごだいそんみょうおう, Go Dai Son Myōō): the Five Great Reverent Wisdom Kings
- 五力明王 (ごりきみょうおう, Go Riki Myōō): the Five Powerful Wisdom Kings
References
- 1988, 国語大辞典(新装版) (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
This article is issued from
Wiktionary.
The text is licensed under Creative
Commons - Attribution - Sharealike.
Additional terms may apply for the media files.