Doganji -
The Lady of the Lake

With famous temples as Enryakuji, Ishiyamadera and Miidera, Shiga is one of Japan's prefectures with the highest number of National Treasures. It comes in fifth after Kyoto, Nara, Tokyo and Osaka. Most of its 55 National Treasures are buildings, but there are also four statues. Among these, the Eleven-headed Kannon of Doganji, north of Lake Biwa, is perhaps the most beautiful.

The area North of Lake Biwa – Japan's largest lake that dominates Shiga Prefecture – is known for its Eleven-headed Kannon statues. Shiga was the backyard of the huge Enryakuji monastery on Mt. Hiei and you find therefore many Tendai temples here – such as the famous Koto Sanzan, the Three Temples East of the Lake. They possess countless treasures, ranging from halls and pagodas to wonderful sculptures. But most of these temples fared badly during the civil wars of the 16th century, when Nobunaga's army destroyed Enryakuji and also went after the temples associated with it. The soldiers also rampaged the quiet area north of the lake. But even though they torched the temples, the pious villagers hid the Kannon statues and carefully preserved them.

A Temple Destroyed
Such a dramatic history also befell Doganji. According to tradition, this temple was founded in 736 by the priest Taicho, a hijiri or holy man from Mt. Hakusan. It stood at the foot of Mt. Kodakami, probably a place where mountain monks practiced their austerities. The temple was set up at the wish of the Emperor Shomu, to quell an infectious disease. In the late 8th c., Saicho, the founder of Enryakuji and Tendai Buddhism, enlarged the single hall and built a full-fledged temple here. Little is known about the history of this temple, except that it was destroyed by Nobunaga's looters in 1573. The villagers buried the Kannon statue, to which they used to pray for relief from diseases, in the ground. The next year, when all was safe again, a small Kannon Hall was set up for the statue – but the original temple, Doganji, was never rebuilt. It now only survives as a name. In modern times the single Kannon hall was taken under the wing of a Jodo Shinshu Temple, Kogenji. The wonderful Kannon image is now housed in a sturdy concrete storehouse at the back of the Main Hall of Kogenji.

The Temple Gate

A Kannon in the Snow
The area north of Lake Biwa is covered in heavy snow in winter. When I come here, the freshly fallen snow is piled high and I have to fight my way to the temple. In the morning I have come to Nagahama, and from there made my way by bus to the village of Takatsuki where the Kannon Hall stands. Somehow, the purity of my surroundings seems symbolic of my visit.

After paying my respects to the main image of Kogenji, a late-Heian Dainichi Nyorai statue that is also a great work of art, I enter the Kannon Hall. The square room is dominated by the 195 cm tall statue, which in addition stands on a dais. The esoteric Eleven-headed Kannon is thought to date from the 9th century. The eleven heads represent eleven vows to save all sentient beings. From the Nara and early Heian periods on, this type of Kannon was immensely popular.

The body, with slightly swinging hips, is long, as are the arms, which are even unnaturally elongated, reaching all the way to the knees. One hand carries a flask of sacred water. Apart from its eleven heads, the Kannon was made using just one large piece of Japanese cypress wood. The hair and other details have been modeled with lacquer mixed with wood shavings. The features of the face are clear-cut. The Kannon possesses a pleasant sophistication and gentleness. Although many temples around the lake's northern area have such Eleven-headed Kannon statues, this one is the most beautiful.

The eleven extra heads decorate the 'real' head as a crown. Two hang on the sides as if replacing the ears, the one on the left distorted in anger, the one on the right showing its fangs. But then I see the elongated ears as well, and notice the large round ornaments at their ends. In esoteric Buddhism, beauty is always coupled with anger at evil.

The temple grounds covered in snow

Terrible Laughter
Clearly, in the case of this Kannon the heads are larger than usual. There are more points where Doganji's Kannon is different from similar statues. On top of the head, above the eleven smaller heads, usually a figure of the Buddha Amida is placed, symbolizing that the Kannon is an emanation if his power. But in this case we have a head wearing a crown and hair piled high on top, like a Bodhisattva. Apparently, this is the Crowned Amida (Hokan Amida), a type of the Amida that figures in the Jogyo Sanmai ritual of Tendai Buddhism. It finds its scriptural basis in a Mandala Ennin (792-862) brought back from China and that was propagated by his disciple So-o. It is interesting to find this link with Ennin and early Tendai Buddhism; it also enables us to date the statue to the late 9th c.

The eleven heads are usually divided into three types: merciful, furious and laughing. The laughing face, normally only one, is placed at the back. At the suggestion of the priest, who has walked with me to the hall, I go to the back of the statue. There, springing from the long hairs of the Kannon, sits one of the most sinister laughing heads I have ever seen. It is a complete contrast with the serene beauty of the Kannon, this wide open mouth silently uttering an ugly and cynical laugh totally devoid of compassion.

The snow-covered surroundings of the temple

The Lady of the Lake
I return to the front of the statue and once more bask in the feeling of peace this Kannon statue exudes. It is as if her face lifts me up and carries me out of this small, tasteless hall to the wide expanse of the nearby lake. The Lady of the Lake. After twelve centuries, she still stands strong, rooted in the popular belief that once saved her.

When I leave the temple, on the path lined with cherry trees that in this season are only bare stalks, I see a small monument in the snow. It marks the spot where the Kannon was buried by the villagers when the temple was destroyed. This is the most important spot in the temple grounds, the marker of a piety that has protected the Lady of the Lake. Therefore she has survived to our times. And therefore, too, I can meet her, here in the snow country north of Lake Biwa, in the freezing cold that sweeps down from the nearby mountains.

Here she offers us her warmth and beauty as a light of compassion.