Belief in the Yaksa/Yaksi nature spirits goes back to time immemorial in India. Yaksa and Yaksi, male and female spirits, were revered as guardian deities deriving from fearsome gods living in the forests, or as gods of fertility and fecundity. Their figures are depicted in both Hindu and Buddhist arts. These gods were introduced to Japan, too, where they were worshipped as Kishimojin (the goddess of childbirth and children) or as Bishamonten, the deity of war and wealth. This Yaksi image, as if to symbolize abundant life force, fecundity, and wealth, wears almost excessively elaborate jewelry on the head, arms, chest, waist, legs, and ankles. This way of expression giving as much emphasis to jewelry as body elements is already found in the images of the earth-mother goddess of the ancient Indus civilization. The Yaksi image has the archaic smile of a goddess who compassionately accepts people’s wishes for wealth and fertility and grants them blessings.
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