Byakue Kannon　白衣観音

KEY WORD :　art history / iconography

Also Byakushozon 白処尊 and Byakue Kanjizaimo 白衣観自在母. (Sk: Panduravasini) ; White-robed *Kannon 観音, believed to intervene in the prevention of sickness and disaster, as well as in fertility, safe childbirth, and raising children. Byakue Kannon has three different forms in art: 1) as a figure in the Kannon section of the *Taizoukai mandara 胎蔵界曼荼羅; 2) as one of the 33 forms of Kannon *sanjuusanshin 三十三身; and 3) as a white robed figure sitting on a rock above water in the wilderness. The last, apparently a Chinese invention of the Tang dynasty, is the most common form, although it is not explained in texts. Byakue Kannon appears in various sutras. In the fifth chapter of the DAINICHIKYOU 大日経 it is said that Byakue Kannon resides within a white lotus; and in the tenth chapter, it is explained that the white is the whiteness of the pure aspiration of enlightenment, bodaishin 菩提心, out of which the buddhas and bodhisattvas are born. Byakue thus becomes the source and lord of the Kannon section of the Taizoukai mandara and may be called Kannonmo 観音母. In later Indian tantric Buddhism, Byakue Kannon is the consort of *Amida 阿弥陀. It may be argued that this is a result of being considered as a symbol of the aspiration to enlightenment and the source of the buddhas and bodhisattvas in the Taizoukai. A persistent feminity clings to Byakue Kannon even though the figure is shown as a male. Texts describe esoteric forms of Byakue Kannon with various attributes. According to written sources, at the time of Retired Emperor Shirakawa 白河 (1053-1129), Byakue Kannon in the Shingonin 真言--an Esoteric Buddhist hall within the imperial palace compound--held a willow branch in one hand. This is thought to have originated from the fact that from the Tang dynasty on, there appears to have been a ritual of offering Kannon a willow branch in a vase of pure water to ward off evil. The most common form, however, is known from Zen ink paintings of the Kamakura and Muromachi periods. These were developed from full colored paintings of Kannon shown as a bodhisattva seated in *Fudarakusen 補陀落山, as he appeared to Zenzai Douji 善財童子 in the course in his journey seeking truth, described in the KEGONKYOU 華厳経. It is thought that this form of Kannon was popular in Zen ink painting because this imagery was suitable to Zen practice. According to the ZENRIN SHOUKISEN 禅林象器箋, the main image of a novices' hall in a Zen temple was a Byakue Kannon in Fudarakusen, which was enshrined in a niche in the center of the hall facing south. Originally a sculpture, a painting was later used. Byakue Kannon is particularly familiar as the subject of the central painting of the famous Song dynasty triptych by Muqi (Jp: Mokkei 牧谿, fl. late 13c) in Daitokuji 大徳寺. The flanking paintings of the Muqi work are a crane and a monkey, whereas in other triptychs they may be landscapes, flowers-and-birds, a fisherman and woodcutter *gyoshou mondou 漁樵問答, or *Kanzan Jittoku 寒山・拾得. In Muromachi period ink paintings *Youryuu Kannon 楊柳観音, Suigetsu Kannon 水月観音, and Takimi Kannon 滝見観音 are similar in their clothing and their setting in Kannon's wilderness paradise Fudaraku.

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Byakue Kannon-zu 白衣観音図 at Tokyo National Museum

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