Our Lady in Disguise: Mary-Guanyin/Kannon Images in Mid-Qing China and Tokugawa Japan

Abstract

<p>This paper explores the intriguing trend of syncretic Marian imagery in China and Japan over the 17th and the 18th centuries, a period when Christianity was simultaneously banned in both countries. I will first examine two undated Chinese paintings to reveal a remarkable iconographical integration of the Virgin Mary and Guanyin Bodhisattva in mid-Qing China. Given the official ban of Christianity during this period, the anonymous artists may have deliberately made such Marian images in the disguise of popular white-robed child-giving Guanyin. These rare examples that survived mid-Qing persecutions can be compared to the Maria Kannon paintings and statues venerated by hidden Christians in Japan during the Tokugawa period. In both cases, Mary was transformed into a noticeable resemblance of Guanyin/Kannon by the underground believers who chose to maintain their Christian devotions in secrecy. This group of Mary-Guanyin/Kannon images, still largely underexplored in recent research, unravel a complex process of localized Marian iconography along with Christianity's encounter with major religions in premodern East Asia.</p>