Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Mujō Daiki, Great Impermanence Demon
Category: Demon
The Myth
Mujō Daiki is a fearsome demon who holds a great wheel representing the five realms of rebirth. He symbolizes impermanence and the unavoidable cycle of life, death, and rebirth.
All living beings within the five realms are trapped by the Great Demon of Impermanence, with no escape from him. He is also associated with the King of Death, or what is commonly called the Grim Reaper. No living being is said to be free from his grasp.
The wheel held by Mujō Daiki represents the cycle of existence. At its center is an image of Buddha, surrounded by a pig, a snake, and a dove, representing the three poisons of greed, hatred, and delusion.
Below the center of the wheel is Hell, while the realms of hungry ghosts and animals appear on either side. The realms of humans and heaven are positioned above them.
Around the outer edge of the wheel are five pairs of buckets containing people. The buckets represent life and death, constantly being filled and emptied like water being drawn up and poured away. They symbolize the endless continuation of rebirth through successive lives and deaths.
Outside the wheel, at the feet of Mujō Daiki, eighteen characteristics are shown. They begin with ignorance in the form of a demon and continue through the twelve links of dependent origination: volition, consciousness, name and form, the six sense bases, contact, feeling, craving, clinging, being, birth, old age, and death.
Sources
Takahashi, Toshihiro. “無常大鬼 [むじょうだいき] (Mujō Daiki).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). March 10, 2019. https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1074019646.html