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Eleven-Headed Kannon on Mount Fudaraku

13th century
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.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 十一面観音影向図
  • Title: Eleven-Headed Kannon on Mount Fudaraku
  • Period: Kamakura period (1185–1333)
  • Date: 13th century
  • Culture: Japan
  • Medium: Hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold on silk
  • Dimensions: Image: 42 1/2 × 16 1/8 in. (108 × 41 cm)
    Overall with mounting: 71 3/4 × 22 3/4 in. (182.2 × 57.8 cm)
    Overall with knobs: 71 3/4 × 24 3/8 in. (182.2 × 61.9 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: The Harry G. C. Packard Collection of Asian Art, Gift of Harry G. C. Packard, and Purchase, Fletcher, Rogers, Harris Brisbane Dick, and Louis V. Bell Funds, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, and The Annenberg Fund Inc. Gift, 1975
  • Object Number: 1975.268.20
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art

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