Eleven-headed Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Jūichimen Kannon)

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.

This unusual form is based on a literal interpretation of a passage in Buddhist scriptures that describes Kannon as so overwrought by the sufferings of the world that his head exploded into fragments. Subsequently, his head was reassembled by his progenitor, Amida Buddha. Arrayed on the head are ten small heads, again symbolizing the protective compassion of the diety, and an eleventh head representing the Amida Buddha himself. Strict rules of iconography require three heads to be of bodhisattvas (enlightened beings), three heads to have tusks, three heads to display righteous anger, and a single head to be laughing.

In the rendering seen here, Kannon descends to the viewer on a stylized cloud formation. This attitude suggests that the painting may have been used to give solace to the ill or dying, a variation of images used to welcome believers into the next world.