Eleven-Headed Kannon on Mount Fudaraku

Japan

Not on view

The Eleven-Headed Kannon is worshipped for his ability to provide the faithful with relief from suffering. He is pictured seated atop a high, rocky outcropping dotted with springs and colorful trees in the midst of a vast sea, a setting in keeping with descriptions in Buddhist scripture of Kannon’s paradisical abode, Fudaraku (Sanskrit: Potalaka). In Japan, several mountainous locales came to be associated with Kannon and his paradise, including Mount Kasuga, in the city of Nara, and Nachi Waterfall, in the Kumano region, sites to which many pilgrims flocked to worship this compassionate deity.

Eleven-Headed Kannon on Mount Fudaraku, Hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold on silk, Japan

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Eleven-Headed Kannon on Mount Fudaraku, Hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold on silk, Japan
Eleven-Headed Kannon on Mount Fudaraku, Hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold on silk, Japan

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