Fukuukenjaku Kannon　不空羂索観音

KEY WORD :　art history / iconography

Also known as Fukuukensaku Kannon. His name "non-empty noose" is pronounced differently in Shingon 真言 (Fukuukenjaku) and Tendai 天台 (Fukuukensaku) contexts. He is counted as one of the Six Kannon *Roku Kannon 六観音, in Tendai. An early esoteric Buddhist deity, images of him exist in India, though no earlier than the 9c. The relevant sutras were translated into Chinese in the Sui and Tang dynasties, though a mid-Tang painting in Dunhuang (Jp: Tonkou 敦煌) is the earliest extant Chinese example. In Southeast Asia bronze examples date from the 8c, and in Japan images also begin to appear in the Nara period. He appears in a number of paintings as well, and in the Kannon Section of the Womb World Mandala *Taizoukai mandara 胎蔵界曼荼羅, where he is shown seated with three faces and four arms. Various forms of Fukuukenjaku Kannon exist, with different numbers of faces and arms, some of these forms difficult to identify. The noose and a deer/antelope skin kesa 袈裟 (Buddhist surplice) thrown over his shoulder are distinguishing attributes, but the noose (sometimes a real rope) may be missing and so may the deer skin. Explanations of the noose differ, too. It is considered an instrument with which Fukuukenjaku saves sentient beings, just as birds and game are caught. The noose binds attachment. A large number of texts are concerned with Fukuukenjaku Kannon. In the FUKUUKENJAKU SHINPEN SHINGONKYOU 不空羂索神変真言経, Fukuukenjaku Kannon is likened to *Daijizaiten 大自在天, one of the names of the Hindu deity Siva. Fukuukenjaku has esoteric connections with *Jizou 地蔵, *Fudou Myouou 不動明王 and *Dainichi 大日. Famous examples include the huge image (362cm tall) at *Hokkedou 法華堂 (also known as Sangatsudou 三月堂, made c.747) in Toudaiji 東大寺, Nara, and that in the Nan-endou 南円堂 of Koufukuji 興福寺, Nara, dated 1189 (original destroyed). Few images of Fukuukenjaku were made after the Nara period. Although the clear reason is unknown, it may be due to the formal introduction of esoteric practice in the early 9c. It has been also suggested that it is due to his importance to the Fujiwara 藤原 family, for whom he was a protective (particularly deity in the Nan-endou of Koufukuji, the Fujiwara family temple) was a protective deity, identified as the *honjibutsu 本地仏 of their ujigami 氏神 (family *kami 神), Kasuga Daimyoujin 春日大明神.

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