Senju Kannon　千手観音

KEY WORD :　 art history / iconography

Sk:Sahasrabhuja-arya-avalokites 'vara. Thousand-armed Kannon or *Kannon 観音 with a thousand arms. Also called Senbi kannon 千臂観音 or Daihi Kannon 大悲観音. This form of Kannon theoretically has 1000 hands and 1000 eyes. Thus a longer version of the name is Senju-sengen Kanjizai Bosatsu 千手千眼観自在菩薩 or, more commonly, Senju-sengen Kannon 千手千眼観音. The form emphasizes the compassion that sees suffering (with 1000 eyes) and acts to relieve it (with 1000 hands). It is assumed that this form originated in India in the 7c, but no examples remain. Examples do remain from around the 10c in China, and Senju was one of the early forms of Kannon revered in Japan. As one of the Six Kannon *Roku Kannon 六観音 that save sufferers in the Six Realms rokudou 六道, Senju saves hungry ghosts gaki 餓鬼. Senju Kannon appears in the Kokuuzouin 虚空蔵院 of the *Taizoukai mandara 胎蔵界曼荼羅, with 27 faces and 42 main arms, while innumerable small arms fan out behind. Since it is difficult to portray one thousand arms, images usually show Senju with two principle arms in gasshou-in 合掌印 (Sk: anjali mudra) in front of his chest and 40 arms, holding attributes and forming mudra, on the sides (altogether 42 arms, or shijunihi 四十二臂). This number can be justified because each hand saves the beings of 25 worlds, and 40 times the 25 equals 1000. Since in each hand there is one eye, there are 1000 eyes. While most images, particularly sculptures, have 42 arms or fewer, there are several early images such as those of Toushoudaiji 唐招堤寺 in Nara and Fujiidera 葛井寺 in Osaka, which try to show all 1000 hands. The number of faces also is usually 11, but 27 and, conversely, just one (with a third eye) are also possible. Senju Kannon is a deity to whom to pray for relief of eye problems and blindness. It may have been partly for this reason that Ganjin 鑑真 (688-763), the founder of the Ritsu 律 sect in Japan who lost his sight during troubled voyages from China, enshrined an image of Senju Kannon at his temple, Toushoudaiji. However, it should also be noted that Senju is one of the forms of Kannon that are worshipped as principal devotional images, and Ganjin was in the equivalent position at Toushoudaiji. In Sanjuusangendou 三十三間堂 (also called Rengeouin 蓮華王院) because Senju is the lord of the renge-in 蓮華印 of the Taizoukai mandara, there are 1000 Senju Kannon sculptures accompanied by a group of twenty-eight attendants *nijuuhachi bushuu 二十八部衆. Senju may also be attended by just Kudokuten 功徳天 (also known as *Kichijouten 吉祥天) and *Basusen 婆薮仙, both of whom accompany him in the Taizoukai mandara.

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