EXECERPT FROM THIS BOOK: A HANDBOOK FOR TRAVELLERS IN JAPAN (INCLUDING FORMOSA), BY BASIL CHAMBERLAIN,F.R.G.S. AND W.B. MASON, CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE ROYAL SCOTTISH GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY AND LATE OF THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS. WITH THIRTY MAPS AND PLANS AND NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. NINTH EDITION, REVISED THROUGHOUT. LONDON. JOHN MURRAY, ALLEMARLE STREET. YOKOHAMA, SHANGHAI,- KELLY&WALSH, LIMITED-HONKONG, SINGAPORE.1913
KWANNON
IS
KWANNON- or more fully Kwanze on Dai Bosatsu (Sankrit -Avalôkitêsvara)-is the Goddess of Mercy, who contemplates the world and listens to the prayers of the unhappy.
According to another,but less favourite opinion,- Kwannon belongs to the male sex.
Kwannon is represented under various forms- many-headed, headed like a horse, thousand-handed. With reference to the images of this deity, it should be stated that the so called Thousand- Handed Kwannon has in reality but forty hands, which hold out a number of Buddhist emblems:such as the lotus-flower; the wheel of the law; the sun and moon; a skull; a pagoda; and an axe;- this last serving to typify severance from all worldly cares.
A pair of hands folded on the image's lap, holds the bowl of the mendicant priest.
The Horse Headed Kwannon has three faces and four pairs of arms, a horse's head being carved above the forehead of the central face. One of the four pairs of arms is clasped before the breast in the attitude called Renge no In, emblematical of the lotus flower . Another pair holds the axe and wheel. Yet another pair grasps two forms of the tokko (Sanskrit vajra)- an ornament originally designed to represent a diamond club, and now used by priests and exorcists as a religious sceptre, symbolising the irresistible power of prayer, meditation, and incantation.
Of the fourth pair of hands, the left holds a cord wherewith to bind the wicked, while the right is stretched out open to indicate almsgiving or succour to the weak and erring. A title often applied to Kwannon is Nyo-i-rin, properly the name of a gem, which is supposed to enable its possessor to gratify all his desires, and which may be approximately rendered by the adjective "omnipotent" .
The two figures often represented on either side of Kwannon are Fudō and Aizen Myō-ō .
The "Twenty eight Followers" of Kwannon (Ni-jū-hachi Bushū) are the favourite subjects of the Japanese sculptor and painter,- they are personifications of the twenty eight constellations known to Far Eastern astronomy.
The various forms, represented in the accompanying illustration are:
1. Shō-Kwannon (Kwannon the Wise)
2. Jū-ichi-men Kwannon (Eleven Faced)
3. Sen-ju Kwannon (Thousand Handed)
4. Ba-tō Kwannon (Horse Headed)
5. Nyo-i-rin Kwannon (Omnipotent)