National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

Iconographic line drawings for six emanations of the bodhisattva Kannon (Skt. Avalokiteśvara) are contained in this scroll. The colophon says the drawings were copied in the 6th month of Jōryaku 2 (1078) by Jōshin (dates unknown), who later became the abbot of Kiyomizudera Temple. Despite this, a note on the back of the end of the scroll has the misprint Ōhō 2 (1162) instead of Ōtoku 2 (1085), suggesting this handscroll is a later copy of Jōshin’s drawings (copied in 1078) that was made at the end of the Heian period (794–1185). The work was likely meant to depict the six emanations of Kannon, as they are drawn in the following order: Kannon (untransformed), Thousand-Armed Kannon (J. Senju Kannon; Skt. Sahasrabhuja-avalokiteśvara), Horse-Headed Kannon (J. Batō Kannon; Skt. Hayagrīva), Kannon of the Unfailing Lasso (J. Fukūkensaku Kannon; Skt. Amoghapāśa), White-Robed Kannon (J. Byakue Kannon; Ch. Baiyi Guanyin), and Nyoirin Kannon (Skt. Cintāmaṇicakra). Nonetheless, the work appears to have been produced in the context of Jōshin’s faith in Nyoirin Kannon specifically, as he added an original interpretation at the end explaining how Nyoirin Kannon’s six arms correspond to the six realms of rebirth and the six emanations of Kannon. The work also contains an iconographic drawing that appears to be a copy of a two-armed Nyoirin Kannon that had attracted a devoted following as the principal image of worship at Ishiyamadera Temple. The two-armed Nyoirin Kannon that was enshrined at Ishiyamadera Temple at its founding burned down in the 1st month of Jōryaku 2 (1078). Jōshin produced this handscroll a mere six months later, suggesting he may have been motivated by the incident.