Toilet Gods

Ucchuṣma and Other East Asian Toilet Gods

The Wisdom King Ucchuṣma is a Vidyārāja or wrathful deity in East Asian Buddhism. Ucchuṣma is thought to protect the believer from injury while using the toilet, and to eliminate filth and defilement.

In Japan you often find a small figure of Ucchuṣma around the toilet, maybe on a small shelf above the toilet or the sink.

Let's see an example! This is at Seiryū-ji, a Buddhist temple complex outside Aomori, at the northern tip of Honshū, the largest island of Japan. At the left is the mon, the outermost gateway into the temple grounds.

You enter through the mon between its compartments holding Niō statues representing fierce protectors of the temple grounds. They're based on the Greek hero Ηρακλής, or Herakles. Alexander the Great had taken Greek culture to the edge of India, where aspects were incorporated into Buddhist imagery that later spread north through Tibet and China, then east into Korea and Japan. East Asian toilet god traditions, however, did not return to the eastern Mediterranean with Alexander's troops.

Why Toilet Gods?

Human feces and urine were traditionally collected and used as fertilizer in Japan. That meant that there was a pit or tank under the toilet where the waste accumulated. With the latrine typically being a poorly lit space, there was always a risk of falling into the toilet and drowning.

Therefore, people sought the protection of a toilet god to protect them from such a terrible fate.

Also, because the collected human waste was used as fertilizer for the crops, the toilet god was associated with fertility. Rituals typically done at the start of the new year asked the deity for a good harvest. Family members would sit on a straw mat in front of the toilet and eat a mouthful of rice, symbolizing the hoped-for good harvest.

The toilet god went by different names throughout Japan, and the rituals varied. The toilet god was sometimes credited or blamed for children being beautiful or ugly, happy or unhappy. For good harvests and beautiful happy children, the toilet god would be propitiated with rice cakes, rice wine, flowers, or incense. However, Ucchuṣma was the broadly recognized toilet god, coming from Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism and recognized and honored through much of Japan.

Visiting Seiryū-ji

The building to the right in the above picture is the Kōya-san Aomori Betsu-in. In Japan, -ji, -in, -dera, and -dō indicate that a structure is a Buddhist temple.

This temple is of the Shingon sect of esoteric Buddhism. The monk Kūkai traveled to China to study esoteric Buddhism. He returned in 806 CE and founded the Shingon sect in what became a temple complex on Mount Kōya-san, south of Kyōto and Nara. This temple, Kōya-san Aomori Betsu-in, is "Aomori City's Exceptional or Distinctive Temple associated with Kōya-san" and thus the Shingon sect of Buddhism.

Cleanliness is, of course, important. A sheltered hand-washing basin will allow you to purify yourself before entering a temple. The shelter or pavilion is called the chozu-yakata. The basin itself is the tsukubai. The sign says "Water comes out within seconds of approaching." Modern infrared motion detection on a traditional ablutions basin!

To properly clean yourself:

1. Pick up the dipper with your right hand, filling it from where water is pouring in or dipping water out of the reservoir.
2. Pour the water over the fingers of your left hand, being careful to make sure that the water falls into the gutter around the reservoir.
3. Transfer the dipper to your left hand, get more water if you need it, and pour water over the fingers of your right hand.
4. Transfer the dipper back to your right hand, again getting more water as needed, and pour water into your cupped left hand.
5. Take water out of your cupped left hand into your mouth, swish it around, then spit it into the gutter around the reservoir.
6. Raise the dipper up so that the remaining water runs down over the handle and your right hand, falling into the gutter, and return the dipper to the fountain.

Now we're ready to proceed along the elevated walkway to the vermillion temple.

The main hall venerates Kūkai, Shingon's founder. That's veneration and not worship, analogous to a Roman Catholic church being dedicated to a specific saint who is honored and perhaps called upon as an intermediary, but not worshiped.

Tradition credits Kūkai with having devised the katakana and hiragana scripts, which are based on simplified Chinese glyphs and used to write Japanese. The kana scripts were needed for Japanese monks to read scriptures without having to learn how to read their Chinese translations or the original Sanskrit. Tradition also says that Buddhism had first reached Japan in 538 CE, when scriptures in Chinese translations were brought from Korea. With the kana scripts, all Buddhist scriptures, Shingon or otherwise, could be more easily propagated.

Most Buddhist sects teach that full enlightenment requires many reincarnations over aeons of time. Shingon, on the other hand, teaches that someone can achieve enlightenment in one lifetime through philosophical training and the proper performance of rituals. The rituals involve body (mudra, gestures or signs), voice (mantra), and mind (philosophical ideas). It's sort of the Buddhist version of the debate over salvation by faith versus salvation by works.

Finding Ucchuṣma

But of course you're anxious to see an image of Ucchuṣma, the toilet god. Here is a small figure of Ucchuṣma in the bathroom next to a shop where you pay a small fee to visit the temple complex. It's in a glass case on a shelf above the sink. A small dish accepts offerings to Ucchuṣma and support for maintaining the bathroom. Most people have left copper ¥10 coins, but someone gave ¥100. Here's an overview and then the figure itself.

The main attraction at Seiryū-ji is the Daibutsu or the Great Buddha. It depicts the Dainichi Nyorai manifestation of the Buddha. Originally known in Sanskrit as Mahāvairocana, this is the central deity or central manifestation of the Buddha in Esoteric Buddhism, including Shingon.

This is cited as Japan's tallest bronze seated Buddha statue, 21.35 meters in height and weighing 220 tons. Other Great Buddha statues are defined as "largest" in other categories. The tallest standing Buddha, the largest indoor Buddha, and so on.

Ucchuṣma

Ucchuṣma is a Vidyārāja or wrathful deity known generally as a destroyer of defilements and more specifically as a deity associated with the toilet. His full name in the original Sanskrit is Vajra Krodha Mahābala Ucchuṣma or "Great Strength Furious Diamond Ucchuṣma". Or, in the romanji rendering of Japanese, Ususama Myōō.

Ucchuṣma is known by several epithets including the "Vajra-Being of Impure Traces" or Eshaku Kongō, the "Vajra-Being of Secret Traces" or Misshaku Kongō, the "Vajra-Being of Fire Head" or Kashu Kongō, and the "Vajra-Being of Contact" or Josoku Kongō.

In addition to Shingon Buddhism, the Tendai, Zen, and Nichiren schools of Buddhism in Japan also venerate Ucchuṣma. He is known for his powers of purification of the unclean, especially regarding sexually transmitted diseases.

Zen monasteries considered the latrine, the bath, and the refectory or meditation hall to be the three sanmokudō or "silent places" kept quiet for contemplation.

The Śūraṅgama Sūtra describes how Shakyamuni Buddha, the Awakened One, asked the bodhisattvas and arhats to present their personal methods for understanding the ultimate truth. The eighteenth of them was Ucchuṣma. The sūtra says:

A mantra to be recited for the removal of filth is:

In China, Ucchuṣma is mainly venerated by the Chan school of Buddhism, but is also venerated by Tiantai, Huayan, and Pure Land Buddhism, and in Taoism and folk religion.

Other East Asian Toilet Gods

Chinese folk religion describes six household deities. The most prominent are the "door gods" and the "toilet gods". Of the toilet gods, Zigu, also known as Maogu, is the most popular. Aso known as the "Lady of the Latrine" or the "Third Daughter of the Latrine", she is believed to be the spirit of a concubine who was tortured and killed in the latrine by a vengeful wife.

One version of the legend says that Zigu's true identity is Consort Qi of the Han Dynasty, and that she was tortured and killed in the latrine by Empress Lü. Another version says that she was He Mingmei, and that she was tortured and killed by the wife of Li Jing.

On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, during the Lantern Festival, the day on which Zigu was killed by the jealous wife, women would use a homemade doll to ritually summon Zigu in the latrine during the night. The doll's motions would be interpreted as revealing the worshiper's fortune.

Drawing of Zigu in Volume 4 of The Complete Collection of the Three Religions, a seven-volume illustrated book probably completed during the Ming Dynasty of 1368–1644 CE, image from Wikipedia.