Hofukuji Temple
Main Image Wooden Standing Eleven-Faced Thousand-Armed Kannon Bosatsu Category Bosatsu (Bodhisattva)
Impression TagsDignityPowerNobility
DescriptionThe secret principal image of Hofukuji Temple is a wooden standing Eleven-Faced Thousand-Armed Kannon Bosatsu designated an Important Cultural Property of Matsumoto City. The 143 cm-high image is made of hinoki cypress in joined-block construction. Matsumoto City dates it to the latter half of the Kamakura period, noting Song-influenced treatment of the drapery. Full cheeks, long upturned eyes, and a tightly set mouth give the face a somewhat stern dignity, while the deeply carved, forceful folds around the waist are particularly striking. The statue has forty-two arms, and a Thousand-Armed Kannon as the principal image of a Zen temple is highly unusual. The temple describes it as the oldest and one of the finest Buddhist images in the Shiga district. It is shown only for two days each January, during the Daihannya service on the second Monday and the Yakuyoke prayer festival on the preceding day.
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