This transformation was made easier through his identifi cation with the snake deity Ugajin, and, through him, with the so-called "wild gods of the placenta" (ena kōjin). Yet Jūzenj i also came to be perceived as a deity watching over the destiny of humans.
The sudden and violent nature of Jūzenj i's child possession, as reported in literary sources, reveals an unruly, demonic nature. He delivered his oracles not only through incubatory dreams but also through children that he possessed. The fi gure of Jūzenj i is also intimately related to the image of the monkey, the emissary of Sannō Gongen, the main protector of Mount Hiei. Indeed, youth is his most characteristic feature, and it links him not only with a category of more or less divine or demonic deities but also with an important fi gure often represented as a child or an adolescent, Shōtoku Taishi. He is usually represented as a young monk or as a youth (dōji or chigo). There are few representations of Jūzenj i. It points toward a Buddhist monastic institution, that of the "ten dhyāna masters" (jūzenj i), which was important in the Nara and Heian periods but had declined by the time Jūzenj i's cult arose, toward the eleventh century. The very name "Jūzenj i" sounds rather strange for a kami, and it has received various Buddhist and "Shintō" interpretations. more During the medieval period and till the Meij i Restoration, Jūzenj i was one of the preeminent gods of the Hie Shrines (known today as Hiyoshi Taisha). During the medieval period and till the Meij i Restoration, Jūzenj i was one of the preeminent gods.
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