Meroufu　馬郎婦

KEY WORD :　art history / paintings

Ch: Malangfu. One of 33 manifestations of *Kannon 観音 (Sk: Avalokitesvara) in which the bodhisattva appears as the wife of a man named Ma 馬. According to one version of the legend, Kannon appeared in Shanxi 山西 province as a beautiful woman who, requiring the man who wished to marry her to recite the KANNONGYOU 観音経 chapter from the Lotus Sutra HOKEKYOU 法華経, ended up marrying Ma who succeeded in this task. On their wedding night she died and only then was it realized that she was a manifestation of Kannon. In painting, Kannon, as the "wife of Husband Ma" Meroufu, is depicted as a beautiful young Chinese woman. The theme was popular in Chinese painting of the Southern Song and Yuan periods and in Japanese painting of the Kamakura and Muromachi periods.

REFERENCES:

*sanjuusanshin 三十三身

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