Kannon (観音菩薩, Avalokiteśvara)
The bodhisattva of compassion, enshrined at Senso-ji and temples across Japan.
Kannon is the bodhisattva of compassion, known in Sanskrit as Avalokiteśvara and worshipped across East Asia under many forms. Senso-ji, which enshrines a hidden image of Kannon, describes the bodhisattva as one who perceives the voices of living beings, removes their suffering, and hears their prayers, and who, through perfected virtue and vow, extends a hand to anyone who comes, making no distinction as to where they have come from. Temples dedicated to Kannon are numerous enough to be organised into pilgrimage routes; Senso-ji is a station on two of them.
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TempleSenso-ji
- Money & Prosperity
- Protection & Safety
Tokyo's oldest temple, in Asakusa, built around a statue of Kannon that two fishermen brothers are said to have pulled from the river in 628, and visited today for prayers about money and protection.
TempleGotoku-ji
- Money & Prosperity
- Bonds & Matchmaking
A Sōtō Zen temple in Setagaya where thousands of white beckoning-cat figurines are left by visitors, and where the temple is careful to say the cat brings connections, not fortune.