him wearing armor. The standing portrayal is first mentioned in the 10th-century Shingon work Yōson dōjōkan (要尊道場観, 'Visualizations of the Ritual Spheres of the Essential Deities') and an apocryphal 11th-century text titled Daikokutenjin-hō (大黒天神法, 'The Tantra of Mahākāla'), while the seated portrayal's first literary appearance is in the 13th-century Asabashō (阿娑縛抄), a Tendai iconographical and ritual compendium. The Daikokutenjin-hō describes Daikokuten as black in color, wearing eboshi (烏帽子, a black cap worn by Japanese noblemen), kariginu (狩衣, informal aristocratic outerwear), and hakama (loose, skirt-like trousers), with his right fist resting at his waist and his left hand clutching a large bag, the color of which is that of rat's hair.The oldest surviving examples of the two iconographic variants date from around the 11th century (late Heian period). The oldest standing Daikokuten statue is found in Kanzeon-ji in Dazaifu, Fukuoka Prefecture and depicts him wearing eboshi, knee-length hakama, and shoes. The oldest depiction of the sitting Daikokuten, kept in Kongōrin-ji in Echi District, Shiga Prefecture, meanwhile, shows him wearing armor, seated on a rock and holding a small bag and a club or staff. Daikokuten's iconography evolved during the 14th century onwards, when he increasingly became portrayed as a smiling man with a rotund belly, holding a mallet and standing or sitting on rice bales. The origin of the mallet attribute is uncertain, although Bernard Faure (2015) links it with Mahākāla-Daikokuten's association with the cult of the Saptamātṛkas (the 'Seven Mothers'), who are pictured as holding mallets - symbolizing their role as plague deities - in the Madarijin (摩怛哩神) ritual. During the 16th century (late Muromachi period), the three deities Daikokuten, Vaiśravaṇa-Bishamonten and Sarasvatī-Benzaiten were fused together into the three-headed 'Sanmen Daikokuten' (三面大黒天, lit. "Three-Faced Daikokuten"), which in a way 'reconnected' the deity's popular benign form with his less well-known wrathful form. This form was eventually introduced in later variants of the legend of Daikokuten's apparition to Saichō in Mount Hiei: in response to Saichō's dilemma over how to provide daily sustenance for three thousand monks, the god is now said to have shown himself to the latter with three faces and six arms. An iconographic grouping known as the 'Roku Daikoku' (六大黒天, lit. "Six Daikoku") also developed during the same period, showing the deity in six different forms: Biku Daikoku (比丘大黒): Daikokuten in the form of a Buddhist monk (bhikkhu), holding a mallet in his right hand and a sword