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

　　A Kannon is a bodhisattva that has been strongly supported since early times. The contents of belief range from fulfilling wishes in this life to praying for life after death (so that the soul is sent to the heavenly land) and the iconography (the image) varies greatly. Just like this painting, the image of the Kannon seated on a mountain is derived from the belief in the heavenly land where a Kannon lives, Mt. Potalaka.
　　This painting represents a Senju Kannon with 42 arms and 11 faces that is sitting on a lotus pedestal placed on a rock base in Mt. Potalaka. The style is common and based on the Secret Sutra of Senju Kannon (千光眼観自在菩薩秘密法経) and the face is placed on the top and the seated original form of Buddha (kebutsu) images are placed at the front on the crown. On both sides, two bodhisattva’s faces for each of the upper levels and three bodhisattva’s faces for each of the lower levels are placed. The total number of bodhisattva’s faces including the main face is 11 and each palm of 42 arms has a single eye. Double halos with short flames flicker around. The body of the Kannon is drawn with vermillion lines and gold paint (kindei). The patterns of the clothes are finely painted in kindei and white powder for white pigment (gofun) and lines and outlines are decorated with slightly wider cut gold leaves (kirikane). In the foreground, a dragon holding a sacred jewel (hoju) is rising from the sea.
　　The face of the Kannon is slightly longer, which is like, for example, the face seems in a xylograph (hanga) held in the “Thousand Senju Kannon” enshrined at the Myoho-in Temple in Kyoto and it can imagine that it is influenced by exotic Kannon statues in China. In the background, the southern heavenly land, Mt. Potalaka, is drawn by adding ink on a draft with soft lines in an ink drawing style and painted in a blue green color (gunroku) avoiding ink outlines (hori nuri) and kindei is added in spots. Such landscape expressions (sansui) have appeared in the late Heian period (794-1185) in Japan and they are influenced by landscape paintings used blue and green pigments (seiryoku sansui) in Chinese paintings. They were gradually adopted to Buddhist paintings in Japan. This mixed style of scenery and sacred images of esoteric Buddhism became popular in the late Kamakura period (1185-1333). It is thought to have been a revolution from both the perspectives of painting and religious history.