Canon was named after a Buddhist goddess.
The camera company’s first prototype — built by Goro Yoshida and Saburo Uchida in 1934 — was called the Kwanon, after Kannon, the Buddhist goddess of mercy. Its logo showed her with a thousand arms, wreathed in flames. When the camera went on sale internationally, the name became “Canon,” to soften the religious reference.
Canon on Brandseum