Baramon, from the Kannon Sutra

Baramon — a Brahmin, one of the forms that Kannon assumes in the Kannon Sutra to bring salvation to different beings — appears in this 1938 print from Munakata's engagement with the text. In the Lotus Sutra's twenty-fifth chapter, Kannon manifests in thirty-three different forms — from gods to generals, monks to women — to meet each being in the form most appropriate to their salvation. Munakata's interest in this doctrinal framework was not merely theological: the thirty-three forms provided him with thirty-three distinct figure subjects, each with a different human and divine character to render through his carving.