Hibo Kannon

Object Details

• Artist

  Kano Hogai 狩野芳崖 (1828-1888)

• Description

  This monumental painting represents Kannon in the guise of a maternal figure who nurtures an infant surrounded by a halo. Both figures hover among clouds high above the stark landscape of the world where the child will live. The painting exhibits both a signature and seal.

• Label

  This monumental painting of Kannon, a bodhisattva (enlightened being) associated with infinite compassion, portrays the Buddhist deity in the guise of a maternal figure who nurtures an infant below surrounded by a halo. Both figures hover among clouds high above a stark landscape that represents the world where the newborn child will live. This unusual presentation of the familiar deity Kannon was based on traditional Buddhist works of art, in which the deity is sometimes attended or accompanied by a child. Hogai's work differs from traditional Buddhist paintings, however, in that the artist intended from the outset to create a painting for public display in art exhibitions rather than as an object of veneration for a Buddhist temple. This painting was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1883.

  The American educator Ernest F. Fenellosa (1853-1908), who served on Japan's Imperial Art Commission from 1886-89, became a strong advocate and patron of Kano Hogai after meeting him in 1883. In 1886, while traveling in Europe for the imperial art commission, Fenellosa purchased from art dealer Siegfried Bing this painting of Kannon, which he called "The Creation of Man." Charles Lang Freer purchased the painting in 1902 from Fenellosa. In the last year of his life, Hogai completed a second version of Hibo Kannon, which is now in the collection of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Sotatsu: Making Waves (Saturday, October 24, 2015 to Sunday, January 31, 2016)

  Religious Art of Japan (December 18, 2002 to January 4, 2015)

  Japanese Art of the Meiji Era (September 20, 1997 to April 26, 1998)

  Untitled Exhibition, Japanese Paintings (October 25, 1955 to November 23, 1955)

  Untitled Exhibition, Japanese Art (October 3, 1947 to February 25, 1956)

  Untitled Exhibition, Japanese Hanging Scrolls, Ceramics, and Sculpture (October 2, 1947 to January 23, 1951)

  Untitled Exhibition, Japanese Ceramics and Painting (May 2, 1946 to October 2, 1947)

  Japanese Paintings Buddhist Etc. (January 5, 1928 to December 8, 1941)

  Japanese Paintings and Pottery (May 2, 1923 to December 8, 1941)

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

  There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1820s, 1880s

• Name

  Kano, Hogai

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Charles Lang Freer collection, Art, Kannon, Cloud, Japanese Art, Kundika, Children, Meiji era (1868 - 1912), Bodhisattva, Halo, Kakemono

• Culture

  Buddhists, Japanese

• Object Type

  Paintings