Daisoujou A monk who died while fasting. His spiritual power allows his body to continue to exist without rotting. It is said that he will appear before people on the day of salvation.

Anat The daughter of Ugaritic's highest god El. She is the goddess of fertility, as well as hunting and war. Her characteristics are the characteristics of the seasons in Canaan.

Race: Fiend

Arcana: Heirophant

Alignment: Neutral

October 11th, 2024

I'm surprised it took this long to cover my personal favorite of the fiends, but what else is spookier than a skeleton? However, Daisoujou's portrayal as one is, ironically, rather inaccurate, and in order to get into that, we need to explore what Daisoujou is based on- not a myth, nor a cryptid, but something entirely different: Sokushinbutsu, a form of ritual suicide in ancient Buddhism, and one of the most extreme and unique practices in certain Buddhist sects- one to ensure perfect preservation in death.

The practice of sokushinbutsu is a very rare and obscure one, connected to only certain sects in Buddhism and only done by the most extreme practitioners of the lifestyle of asceticism, which is a lifestyle defined by refusing to partake in the pleasures of the world and instead living a solitary lifestyle. However, first, I want to explore what Daisoujou actually means, as it's relatively hard to parse without prior knowledge or, in my case, not knowing the language. Once again, Monolingualism dooms me.

Daisoujou as a name seems to be an anglicized version of a term used to refer to head monks in some Buddhist areas, as a 僧正, anglicized as Soujou, is a high-ranking, government-appointed monk put out to maintain and manage Buddhist areas under government supervision. Following this, 大僧正, anglicized as Daisoujou, is the head of these head monks, being the leader of Chinese Buddhism under government supervision overall, at least from what I can tell- I might be getting some things messed up, as, again, I can't speak or read Chinese. However, what's important here is that Daisoujou overall essentially means a monk that has attained great peace, even being a title applied to monks who have attained Buddhahood in their lifetime. Allegedly, the title was given to Kūkai, the founder of Shingon Buddhism, after his death. お大師様 is the title given to Kūkai by people who refer to him and follow his philosophy, so make of that what you will.

Moving from Chinese Buddhism to Japanese Buddhism, what this ties back into is that Kōbō Daishi, the now-dead Kūkai, was entombed after months of not eating as he saw his end was near, and when his body was uncovered years later, he had barely rotted a day, tying this occurrence to Sokushinbutsu, as that is exactly what the process is carried out for- preserving a monk as-is. As its name literally translates to "Buddha in this very body", this practice was the most extreme form of asceticism attainable, with a monk burying themselves and then intentionally eating the very bare minimum, each day, ringing a bell every day they were alive to tell the people above ground that, yes, they were alive. Surviving off of an incredibly strict diet of tree roots, nuts, and berries, these monks would intentionally break away all of their body fat until they were, almost literally, just skin and bones.

Curiously, the diet had more of a purpose than depriving those who took part in it of commonalities- not only was it spiritually important to show a hardened and dedicated shell, but it was also a perfect diet for ensuring a lack of decomposition due to how it would deprive any bacteria of nutrients and remove the fat and muscle from the frame. After around 1000 days of this diet, the monk would prepare further for the process, moving from this strict diet to eating nothing and drinking only salinized water before being lowered in a pine-tar box into the ground to meditate during their final days. As time would go on, the monk's ringing of the bell would quiet, and eventually, when it'd stop ringing, the process was complete- they would be dead, yet perfectly preserved, much like a mummy- in a way, it's a self-mummification process undertaken while the monk is still alive.