Jibo Kannon
1800-1899
Scroll
Jibo Kannon
1800-1899
Physical Qualities
Wood, 5 1/8 x 2 15/16 x 2 1/16 in. (13 x 7.4 x 5.3 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Dow Berggren, Bethesda, Maryland
Object Number
2007.330
Jibo Kannon is Japan’s version of Songzi Guanyin (Child-Giving Guanyin), who initially appeared in China in the 14th or 15th century. Child-Giving Guanyin is closely connected to Christianity. Jesuit missionaries and traders from Portugal may have influenced the iconography of China's Songzi Guanyin with an infant or small child by requesting the manufacture of statues of Mary and Baby Jesus for personal use. When Christianity was outlawed during the Tokugawa period (1615-1868), Japanese Christians used statues such as this one to worship Mary and Jesus disguised as Jibo Kannon.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 2007; Mr. and Mrs. Paul Dow Berggren, Bethesda, Maryland
Collection installation, "Asia. Exchange across Land & Sea," Levy Gallery, Baltimore Museum of Art, October 5, 2023-
On View at the BMA
