觀世音菩薩 manifests on my street.

Recently I've been thinking about compassion and, surprisingly, about boddhisatvas; Buddhism isn't a thing I think about much at all, but it's been on my mind. A 19th-century pulley I have from a musty basement has been whispering dharmachakra. My house is peopled with ancestors and saints—including Budai/Hotei, the "laughing Buddha", a favorite for years, even before our post-COVID similarity in belly—and for a while I've been looking online for a statue of Guanyin, bodhisattva of compassion in many forms, to join them.

So today I had to walk across town for this meeting that turned out to be nothing. On the way back, in the rain, I espied in someone's recycling bin this framed treasure:

Of course, task #1 (after hauling it home) was to read it.

From right:

南無観世音菩薩
十三年六月二十五日
And then katakana and one kanji: グリフ、スグリーン芽—glyph, "sugureen" sprout? 芽 me/GA
Or is it a little tsu? Griff's/Griffith's Green?

Carefully lifting to view the back:

謹写—kinsha, copy?

Front again:

南無: namu/namo (kanji are south 南 and nothing 無), but this is a hailing word in Buddhism
観: appearances, observation (KAN カン; variant of 觀?)
世: the world (SE セ, yo よ)
音: sound (ON オン, oto おと)
菩薩: bosatsu ぼさつ, boddhisatva (suffix)

Together, these name the boddhisatva Avalokiteśvara—that is, lotus-bearing Guanyin (观音/觀音)! 

十三年六月二十五日: June 25th (that is, 25th day of the 6th month) of the 13th year. Of what? 本地垂迹? Shinto "manifestation theory"—traces of the homeland, manifested forms of the deity (in this case to save Philadelphians?)—that linked page says honji suijaku was accepted in Japan until the Meiji era; if this is Japanese (given the katakana), then the 13th year might be ~1938 (Shouwa), ~1924 (Taishou), or even ~1880 (Meiji). 

I have a lot more learning to do, so for the moment I'll be happy that the boddhisatva of compassion 觀世音菩薩 has manifested in my home. Wild-goose chase across town well spent!