Myōken

Myōken (, ; Chinese: 妙見菩薩 (Traditional) / 妙见菩萨 (Simplified), ; Japanese: 妙見菩薩, Myōken Bosatsu), also known as Sonjō-Ō (尊星王, "Venerable Star King", also Sonsei-Ō or Sonshō-Ō), is a Buddhist deification of the North Star worshiped mainly in the Shingon, Tendai and Nichiren schools of Japanese Buddhism.

Despite the alleged Sanskrit origin of his name and his bodhisattva status, Myōken is conspicuously absent from early Buddhist literature, with his name first appearing in apocryphal sutras of Chinese origin. He is thus thought to have originated from Taoist and folk beliefs regarding the northern pole star and/or the Big Dipper that had syncretized with Buddhism during the Tang dynasty. Indeed, despite being called 'bodhisattva' (bosatsu), the deity is actually more often classified as a deva.