Artworks

One thousand standing Senju Kannon, Sanjūsangendō

Artwork · Anonymous, Tankei · 1164–1266 · sculpture · Sanjūsangen-dō Temple

A sea of figures on the ten stepped levels of the altar: one thousand standing images of the thousand-armed Kannon (Senju Kannon) flanking a central seated one, with twenty-eight attendants. When the first Rengeōin burnt, 156 Kannon sculptures were saved and formed the nucleus of the new installation; the rest were made under Tankei in the thirteenth century, faithful to the older forms. Most stand frontally, some with a slight shift of weight. 1 Mason 2005, pp. 154–156, fig. 188. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005.