Conflations and Confusions
There is claim that Acala/Fudo is identifiable with one of the "two kings" or Niō (仁王?), or the gate guardian deities in Japan, but that assertion is not backed by many of the available commentary on the deity, and may be a common misconception. One source which makes this claim explains that the seed syllable हूं hūṃ represents the Acala/Fudo, but Acala's symbol is hāṃ हां as aforementioned, and hūṃ actually belongs to another Wisdom King, Kuṇḍali (Gundari Myōō (軍荼利明王?)).
This latter syllabic symbol, hūṃ, is actually the same as un or "closed mouth" character, frequently associated with the "two kings" or Niō (仁王?), whose resepective opened or closed mouth position are referred to by the phrase A-un (阿吽?). This probably led to the further assertion that Acala/Fudo was to be identified with the closed-mouthed Nio statue represented by the hūm sound. If Acala were a Nio gate guardian, then by transference he would belong to the class of beings called Vajrapani (Shūkongōshin (執金剛神?); also known as Kongōrikishi (金剛力士?) in wrestler form), that is to say, or vajra (lightning)-wielding yakshas. But that would be contradictory to the aforementioned concept of the "three wheel-embodiments", which considers the wisdom-king as a higher class of beings than vajrapani or other dharmapala guardian deities. However, that is strictly a Japanese interpretation. In commentary on Tibetan art, one encounters many references to the "Acala-Vajrapani".
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