Eleven-Headed Kannon on Mount Fudaraku

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Eleven-Headed Kannon is worshipped for his ability to provide the faithful with relief from suffering. He is pictured seated atop a high, rocky outcropping dotted with springs and colorful trees in the midst of a vast sea, a setting in keeping with descriptions in Buddhist scripture of Kannon’s paradisical abode, Fudaraku (Sanskrit: Potalaka). In Japan, several mountainous locales came to be associated with Kannon and his paradise, including Mount Kasuga, in the city of Nara, and Nachi Waterfall, in the Kumano region, sites to which many pilgrims flocked to worship this compassionate deity.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art