The Forms of Kannon

Of all Buddhist figures, Kannon takes the greatest number of shapes. The Lotus Sutra says the bodhisattva appears in whatever body will save the being before it, and Japanese art answers with figures of one face and eleven, two arms and a thousand, gentle and fierce. This entry is a field guide to telling them apart.

The basic form

Shō Kannon (聖観音), the sacred or original Kannon, has one face and two arms, a buddha in the crown and usually a lotus or water flask. All other forms build on this one.

The Six Kannon

Medieval Japan assigned one Kannon to each of the six realms of rebirth. In the Shingon arrangement:

Form Realm Key feature
Shō Kannon Hells One face, two arms
Senju Kannon Hungry ghosts Many arms, typically forty-two
Batō Kannon Animals Horse head in the crown, fierce face
Jūichimen Kannon Ashura Eleven heads
Juntei Kannon Humans Eighteen arms, three eyes
Nyoirin Kannon Heavens Six arms, seated with a raised knee

The Tendai school replaces Juntei with Fukūkenjaku Kannon, who holds a lasso to catch every being and wears a deerskin over one shoulder. The great dry-lacquer Fukūkenjaku in the Hokkedō at Tōdaiji is one of the treasures of the Nara period.

The Thirty-three Kannon

A second set, of Chinese origin, gathers thirty-three Kannon who appear in legends and paintings rather than in ritual. They are favourites of ink painters and of later devotional art. Among them:

  • Yōryū Kannon, holding a willow branch, the healer.
  • Byakue Kannon, the white-robed Kannon seated by water, loved by Zen painters.
  • Suigetsu Kannon, contemplating the moon reflected in water.
  • Gyoran Kannon, carrying a fish basket, Kannon as a fisherwoman.
  • Ryūzu Kannon, riding a dragon among clouds.
  • Ichiyō Kannon, floating on a single lotus leaf.

Popular and later forms

  • Koyasu Kannon, holding a child, prayed to for safe birth.
  • Maria Kannon, porcelain Kannon venerated in secret by Japan's hidden Christians.
  • Hibo Kannon, Kanō Hōgai's Meiji painting of the compassionate mother.

Identification in practice

  • Count the heads and arms first. Then look at what the principal hands hold.
  • A raised knee and a hand to the cheek suggest Nyoirin. A horse head and a fierce face mean Batō.
  • A seated two-armed Kannon with a lotus may be part of a broken Amida triad.

In the collection

Browse Kannon figures and thousand-armed Kannon. Our collector concierge can search Japan for a particular form.

See also

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