The four deities in court dress in this painting represent a hierarchy of local Shinto gods (kami) involved in the founding and perpetuation of the great Shingon Esoteric Buddhist headquarters on Mount Kōya. The upper pair comprises Kariba Myōjin (male) and Niu Myōjin (female), the gods of the mountain who welcomed the monk Kōkai (774–835) as he searched for a site on which to build a temple. The other two deities in the painting—Kehi, on the right, and Itsukushima Myōjin, playing a lute on the left—were worshiped by the Taira clan. All four deities are identified as local manifestations of Buddhist gods: Kariba and Niu are aspects of Dainichi Nyorai (Sanskrit: Mahavairochana); Kehi is an aspect of the Thousand-Armed Kannon (Avalokiteshvara); and Itsukushima is an aspect of Benzaiten (Saraswati).
