Kōjin is the deity who protects the Three Treasures of Buddhism: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. This god sometimes manifests in the guise of a Buddha or in a wrathful form, but here we see its iconographic expression as a commoner with four arms and holding various implements of esoteric Buddhist practice. This is how the deity appeared in a vision responding to the prayers of the priest Shinkō(934–1004) of Kojimadera Temple, which is why this particular iconography is referred to as the Kojima Kōjin.