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

The White-Robed Kannon (Ch. Baiyi Guanyin; K. Baeg-ui Gwaneum) is facing forward in this painting while seated in a relaxed posture on a pile of grass in a rocky area. The place depicted is Mount Potalaka, Kannon’s dwelling in the south. Kannon is wrapped in a white robe that also covers the head. This iconography was first seen in China, with many depictions produced during the Song dynasty (960–1279). Several images of the White-Robed Kannon came to be produced in Korea and Japan as well, as faith in the bodhisattva spread.

This painting differs somewhat from most others produced between the Song and the Yuan (1271–1368) dynasties in China and the Kamakura (1185–1333) and Muromachi periods (1392–1573) in Japan. The facial features and robe style are unusual: The figure has up-angled eyes and eyebrows and an under-robe (Skt. saṃkakṣikā ) wrapped to cover the upper part of the chest. Mount Potalaka’s scenery has deviations as well, like daimyo oak leaves visible on the tree to the side. Some changes are variations on standard elements seen in other works, suggesting this painting was made with intentional deviations after the standard iconography for the White-Robed Kannon on Mount Potalaka had been established.

Owing to these unique features, the painting has long been thought to have been produced in Korea during the Goryeo dynasty (918–1392), but evidence to support this assertion has not been easy to find. Some scholars have suggested it could have been produced in the late Yuan or early Ming (1368–1644) dynasty in China, due to similarities seen in the depiction of the surrounding scenery.

The ink inscription in the viewer’s upper right extols Kannon’s merits. Details about the author of the inscription (海燁 possibly read as Haiye or Haehyeop) are not known, but the painting style has allowed scholars to identify the Chinese zodiacal year Fire Snake as referring to Hongwu 10 (1377).