Eleven-headed Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Jūichimen Kannon)

13th century

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.