Votive Hanging with Image of Kannon (Kannon Kakebotoke)

mid- to late 1300s

Votive Hanging with Image of Kannon (Kannon Kakebotoke), mid- to late 1300s. Japan, Nanbokuchō period (1336-92). Bronze with repoussé and etching; diameter: 52.5 cm (20 11/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 1985.16 Kakebotoke (literally “hanging Buddhist deities”) like this appeared from the latter part of the Heian period. They often hung on the doors of a Shinto shrine hall to indicate the Buddhist manifestation of the god, or kami, inside, or along the eaves of a Buddhist temple hall to indicate the Buddhist deity celebrated there. Here the deity Kannon sits on a lotus flower, a symbol of purity and enlightenment.