The Bodhisattva Kannon (Avalokiteshvara)

Japan

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 224

Kannon is a compassionate bodhisattva and one of the most popular and most frequently depicted deities in Japanese Buddhism. Here he wears flowing robes and is draped with sashes. Originally, its surface would have been decorated with layers of lacquer, pigments, and mostly likely gold leaf, though today its cypress wood core is completely revealed. The sculpture represents a technical and stylistic transition. Its ample proportions harken back to sculpture of the 900s, while the artist’s approach to the figure’s posture and drapery suggests a date to the next century.



On view from August 28, 2021–April 24, 2022

The Bodhisattva Kannon (Avalokiteshvara), Cypress wood; single-block construction (ichiboku-zukuri), Japan

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The Bodhisattva Kannon (Avalokiteshvara), Cypress wood; single-block construction (ichiboku-zukuri), Japan
The Bodhisattva Kannon (Avalokiteshvara), Cypress wood; single-block construction (ichiboku-zukuri), Japan
The Bodhisattva Kannon (Avalokiteshvara), Cypress wood; single-block construction (ichiboku-zukuri), Japan
The Bodhisattva Kannon (Avalokiteshvara), Cypress wood; single-block construction (ichiboku-zukuri), Japan

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