I finally had a chance to make the corrections. Thank you so much for finding this out for me. This was not a trivial thing, I imagine.

Thanks very for your persistence in figuring this one out. I’ll update the blog post once I get settled in the US, in a few days. I’ve made a note elsewhere so I don’t forget.

Just setting the record straight.

JL

I had no idea that was your hometown’s Museum. Very cool. As for the Sensoji altar, you may be right. I honestly don’t know what those two statues are, but I had assumed it was Kannon. If you find out, let me know. I will definitely update where I can. Also, I wasn’t aware that the real image is behind the curtain. I thought that was just a backdrop. :p

The altar of Sensoji (second pic) conceals the main image of Kannon–it is a 秘仏　a hidden Buddha statue, behind the curtain with the Siddham letter on it. My Asakusa guide association friend tells me that the curtain is only opened once a year for 30 seconds or so, in the middle of the night in complete darkness, so it is safe to say that virtually no one has ever seen it!

Are you sure the flanking figures are also Kannon? I had better do some checking before I challenge that. But it seems kind of redundant…

Regards,
JL

As for the hidden Catholics, I heard about the use of Kannon to represent Mary as well. I can’t blame them, since like you said, they were cut off and had to work with the material they had. Orthodox groups in Rome may find this heretical, but I’d say the loss is their’s.

Speaking of which, a good friend of mine I grew up with became a Catholic priest, and had a strong interest in China. He had a number of images from China of Guan-Yin, as well as those of Mary and indeed, there is a strong similarity. I think it’s a kind of convergence reflecting similar ideas in both traditions. On the other hand, other Buddhist texts imply that Kannon has no form, so I think the female-form of Kannon is a kind of convention to express the tender compassion of a Bodhisattva (since women have a strong mother instinct). The “loving all beings as one’s mother” theme appears in other Buddhist texts as well not related to Kannon.

As the shrine is to a sea diety, this seems to be the reason the statues were of Kannon or could be confused with Kannon.
http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/suijin.html

Despite being attached to an Onsen hotel, it was an unusual and beautiful place. Perhaps unique in that you enter a volcanic hot spring outdoor bath that is itself the shrine.

It’s also interesting that Japanese hidden Catholics would use statues of Kannon to represent Mary. I think in the years of isolation the various traditions may have been mixed up to produce something new (and probably heretical according to Rome)

Refusing to become a Buddha until all other sentient beings have attained enlightment, now that must be the ultimate compasionate Bodhisattva vow…

南無観世音菩薩