The Eleven-Faced Kannon is one of the "transformation Kannon" (henge Kannon), forms that Kannon Bodhisattva (Avalokiteśvara) takes on to save people. Bearing eleven faces upon the head and surveying every direction, this Kannon is said to respond to and relieve suffering in whatever quarter it arises.

In Japan, it was the earliest of the transformation Kannon to be venerated, and from the Nara period onward countless images were made. This is a Kannon strongly tied to worldly wishes such as recovery from illness and protection from misfortune.

Its formal name is the Eleven-Faced Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva. In Sanskrit it is Ekādaśamukha Avalokiteśvara, meaning "Avalokiteśvara with eleven faces."

The Eleven-Faced Kannon was born first as a "mantra," before any image of its form.

The history of the root sutra of the Eleven-Faced Kannon has been reconstructed through philological research that collates the seven extant variant recensions. According to it, at the stage of the Tibetan translation that preserves the oldest form, no image or deity that could be called "Eleven-Faced Kannon" yet appears. There is only a heart mantra (hṛdaya) named "Eleven Faces," which Kannon is said to have received from a tathāgata in a past life.

What was called "Eleven Faces" was the name of this mantra. Even in the *Jūichimen jinju shingyō* (Eleven-Faced Heart Dhāraṇī Sutra), translated by the Tripiṭaka master Xuanzang and the most widely read version in Japan, Kannon introduces this mantra as follows.

"Eleven Faces" was, first of all, the name of this mantra. In time, the compassionate working contained within that mantra, which turns toward every direction to save people, came to be expressed as a figure bearing eleven faces. The method for making the image (the eleven-faced, four-armed form) is expounded in the sutras only later, at the stage of the Tripiṭaka master Amoghavajra's translation (early sixth century).

In other words, the order in which it came to be can be traced in three stages: the working (the compassion that saves) first, the mantra that put it into words next, and the visible figure last.

The eleven faces of the Eleven-Faced Kannon each wear a different expression. To those who rejoice, it rejoices with them; to those who do evil, it corrects them with wrath; toward every kind of person it turns a fitting face to save them. This working is expressed through the arrangement of the faces.

Two numbers of hands for the image are expounded in the sutras: two arms (Xuanzang's translation) and four arms (Amoghavajra's translation). What spread in Japan was the Xuanzang lineage, in which the basic figure holds in the left hand a water vase with a lotus inserted, and drapes prayer beads over the right hand to form the gesture of fearlessness (the mudrā that removes people's fears). Within the crown's jeweled diadem dwells a transformation buddha in each face. Older translations explicitly identify this transformation buddha as Amitābha, indicating the deep bond between Kannon and Amitābha.

"Why eleven?" is a question still unsettled even among scholars. We introduce the main theories.

Taking these together, this heart mantra named "Eleven Faces" can be understood as giving form, with the directionality of "Eleven Faces," to the power of vow and salvation, grounded in compassion and wisdom, that the buddhas have transmitted from the distant past, turning toward every direction to deliver all people from suffering and lead them to awakening. Rather than fixating on interpretations of the number eleven, the essence of this deity lies precisely in the working of "turning a face toward every direction to save."

The root sutra of the Eleven-Faced Kannon belongs to the lineage of the *Eleven-Faced Avalokiteśvara Dhāraṇī Sutra*. Through repeated expansion from an old form, seven variant recensions are now transmitted across Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese. There are four Chinese translations.

When the heart mantra (hṛdaya) of the four Chinese translations, the Tibetan translation, and the Sanskrit text are collated, the core is found to be almost identical, confirming that they trace back to the same source. The methods of making the image and the rites of homa and curing illness were expanded over time, but at their center there was consistently the heart mantra named "Eleven Faces." Here too it appears that the heart mantra was the very core of the devotion.

For those who recite the Eleven-Faced mantra, worldly blessings attainable in this very body are expounded. The most famous among them are the "ten victories" and the "four meritorious blessings" of Xuanzang's translation.

The Ten Victories (the ten blessings attainable in this body)

1. The body is always free of illness
2. One is always protected by the buddhas of the ten directions
3. One never lacks for wealth, treasure, clothing, or food
4. One subdues enemies and has nothing to fear
5. One is revered by honored people, who address one first
6. One is not harmed by poison or by malevolent spirits
7. One is not wounded by any blade or staff
8. One does not drown in water
9. One is not burned by fire
10. In the end, one does not die an untimely death (a death by mishap)

The Four Meritorious Blessings (the four blessings attainable at death and thereafter)

1. At the end of life, one beholds the buddhas
2. In the end, one does not fall into an evil destiny (an evil realm)
3. One does not die through harsh calamity
4. One is born in the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss

Based on the old form, these blessings can be arranged together into twenty-four kinds. The items differ slightly depending on the translation, but they share in common that both worldly wishes to live in health, such as freedom from illness and avoidance of calamity, and rebirth in the Pure Land after death are expounded together. The fact that the Eleven-Faced Kannon has been cherished as a buddha of recovery from illness, freedom from sickness, and warding off misfortune is rooted in what this sutra expounds.

For Shingon, the Eleven-Faced Kannon is a transformation Kannon positioned within the Womb Realm system of "Kannon = the lotus family" (renge-bu).

In the *Mahāvairocana Sutra* and its commentary the *Commentary on the Mahāvairocana Sutra*, which Kōbō Daishi Kūkai transmitted to Japan, Avalokiteśvara (Kannon) is established as the center (the family lord) of the "lotus family," which bears the compassionate working of Mahāvairocana Tathāgata. The various deities of the Avalokiteśvara court, such as Tārā, Hayagrīva, and Pāṇḍaravāsinī, are all developments of this Avalokiteśvara's virtue. The Eleven-Faced Kannon, too, is one transformation body within this lotus family.

The *Commentary on the Mahāvairocana Sutra* expounds the lotus family thus.

As the *Commentary on the Principle of Wisdom* expounds, the heart of Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva's working lies in watching over the pure nature within the heart of every person (the tathāgatagarbha, the inherently pure) and in its never being stained by delusion or defilement. Just as a lotus growing in mud is not stained by it, the nature of a person is originally pure. This teaching of inherent purity is deeply connected with the ground of attaining buddhahood in this very body (becoming a buddha just as one is).

When one takes the Eleven-Faced Kannon as the principal object of devotion and practices, one forms a mudrā with the hands (the secret of the body), recites the Eleven-Faced mantra or the seed-syllable hrīḥ (the secret of speech), and contemplates the figure of Kannon in the mind (the secret of the mind). Through this practice of the three secrets, one brings Kannon's great compassion to fruition within one's own body. In the homa accomplishment rite, it is expounded that at the end the tathāgata-face at the crown (Amitābha) declares the fulfillment of the practitioner's wish. The whole figure of the Eleven Faces, which holds within one body the compassionate, the wrathful, the loudly laughing, and the tathāgata aspects, is opened to the practitioner through the rite.

Several mantras are transmitted for the Eleven-Faced Kannon. Knowing the differences in their character deepens the spirit of one's recitation.

It is commonly thought that "oṃ mahā-kāruṇika svāhā" is a mantra unique to the Eleven-Faced Kannon, but this was originally a praise of great compassion applicable to Kannon in general. The mantra distinctive to the Eleven Faces is the long heart mantra given above (the Eleven-Faced dhāraṇī). Whichever mantra it is, all are alike a doorway for turning the mind toward Kannon's great compassion.

The wide circulation of Xuanzang's translation spurred vigorous image-making in China and Japan. The Eleven-Faced Kannon became the most widespread form among the transformation Kannon, and later became a buddha as popular as the Thousand-Armed Kannon.

The Eleven-Faced Kannon was venerated even before pure esoteric Buddhism was transmitted. It was depicted in the murals of the Golden Hall of Hōryūji, and in the Nara period many images were made as principal objects of devotion for worldly wishes such as healing from illness.

Distinctively Japanese iconographies also arose, such as the "Hasedera-style Eleven-Faced Kannon," which stands on a rock holding a pilgrim's staff in the right hand and a water vase with a lotus inserted in the left.

Eleven-Faced Kannon Designated National Treasures (seven sculptures and one painting)

• Kōgenji (Dōganji Kannon Hall, Shiga). Counted among the finest masterpieces in the history of Japanese sculpture.
• Shōrinji (Nara). An image originally transmitted to Daigorinji, the temple of the shrine-deity of Ōmiwa Shrine.
• Hokkeji (Nara). The principal image, said to have been modeled on Empress Kōmyō.
• Kannonji (Kyoto), Murōji (Nara), Rokuharamitsuji (Kyoto), and Dōmyōji (Osaka).
• The Eleven-Faced Kannon image in color on silk, held by the Nara National Museum (a painting).

The Eleven-Faced Kannon is also counted as one of the "six Kannon" who save the beings of the six realms (the realms of delusion), assigned mainly as the Kannon who saves the realm of the asuras.

The "Omizutori" of the Nigatsudō of Tōdaiji is formally called the "Eleven-Faced Repentance" (Jūichimen keka), a rite in which one repents of one's sins before the principal image, the Eleven-Faced Kannon, and prays for the peace of the nation and the happiness of the people. It has been carried on without interruption since the fourth year of the Tenpyō-shōhō era (752). The Eleven-Faced Kannon has been deeply cherished as a principal object of devotion for repentance and for praying for the nation's tranquility.

At Byōdōji (Anan City, Tokushima Prefecture), the twenty-second sacred site of the Shikoku Eighty-Eight Temple Pilgrimage and a temple of the Kōyasan Shingon school, the Eleven-Faced Kannon is enshrined as the principal image of the Jibutsudō, together with Yakushi Nyorai (the Medicine Buddha), the principal image of the main hall. Byōdōji bears two temple titles: "Iō-in," after Yakushi Nyorai, and "Nikkōin," after the Eleven-Faced Kannon. The legend that the sunlight reflected on the surface of the empowered water on the morning of the temple's founding was received as the figure of the Eleven-Faced Kannon is the origin of that title "Nikkōin" (Hall of Sunlight).

The Eleven-Faced Kannon of the Jibutsudō is a standing image carved from a single block of wood (ichiboku-zukuri). It bears eleven faces upon the crown and holds a lotus and a water vase; by temple tradition, it was already enshrined here by the time of Kōbō Daishi's pilgrimage.

At Byōdōji, on the night of the 18th of each month, the day sacred to Kannon, we conduct the "Eleven-Faced Kannon Calamity-Averting Homa" before the Eleven-Faced Kannon. It is a rite that conveys, upon the flames of the homa, prayers for the ten victories expounded in the sutra—that is, for freedom from illness and for not meeting with calamity.

About the Statue

The Eleven-Faced Kannon of the Jibutsudō (Iō-in, Nikkōin, and Byōdōji)

The Eleven-Faced Kannon Calamity-Averting Homa on the 18th of each month (explanation and application)