Cleveland Museum of Art

Votive Hanging with Image of Kannon (Kannon Kakebotoke)

Date

mid- to late 1300s

Medium

Bronze with repoussé and etching

Culture

Japan, Nanbokuchō period (1336–92)

Department

Japanese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Kakebotoke (literally “hanging Buddhist deities”) like this appeared from the latter part of the Heian period. They often hung on the doors of a Shinto shrine hall to indicate the Buddhist manifestation of the god, or kami, inside, or along the eaves of a Buddhist temple hall to indicate the Buddhist deity celebrated there. Here the deity Kannon sits on a lotus flower, a symbol of purity and enlightenment.

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