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Eleven-headed Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Jūichimen Kannon)
From the collection of National Museum of Asian Art (Freer/Sackler). Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
The bodhisattva Kannon is the manifestation of the wisdom and infinite compassion of the universal Buddha. Symbolic of his unlimited capacity to care for suffering beings, Kannon is represented in thirty-three distinct forms. Devotion to one of these forms, that of the Eleven-Headed Kannon, was especially popular among Japanese Buddhists from the ninth century. Indeed, social upheaval and apocalyptic fears that swept through Japan in the eleventh and twelfth centuries intensified cult worship of this welcoming, accessible deity.
National Museum of Asian Art (Freer/Sackler)’s own descriptionSubjects
Credit lineEleven-headed Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Jūichimen Kannon). 13th century. National Museum of Asian Art (Freer/Sackler), Gift of Charles Lang Freer. CC0.
