Minneapolis Institute of Art

White-Robed Kannon

Japan

Date

15th century

Medium

Hanging scroll, ink on silk

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Painted images of the Buddhist deity Kannon wearing white robes and seated on a rocky outcropping emerged in China during the Tang dynasty (618–907) and became important in the Zen sect of Buddhism before it was introduced to Japan a few hundred years later. Such images refer to a passage from the Avatamsaka Sutra , a sacred Buddhist text that narrates the story of Zenzai Dōji, a boy who sets out on a journey of truth and consults with numerous teachers, Kannon being one of them. Kannon is a bodhisattva, an enlightened being that forgoes Buddhahood in order to assist humans on the path to enlightenment. According to the text, the boy finds Kannon in Fudaraku, the bodhisattva’s paradise, seated on a boulder in a warm, misty locale. The boy’s journey and his encounter with Kannon can be seen as allegories for Zen practice and the path to enlightenment, so Zen masters hung paintings of white-robed Kannon in the temple hall devoted to the training of novice monks. Asia

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