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Jun 4, 2013

Medicine Master Buddha and the Twelve Divine Generals

薬師如来及び十二神将像

1200s

Japan, Kamakura period

(1185-1333)

Hanging scroll painting; ink, color, gold, and silver on silk

Image: 151.2 x 84.1 cm (59 1/2 x 33 1/8 in.); Overall: 261 x 106.6 cm (102 3/4 x 41 15/16 in.); with knobs: 261 x 113.3 cm (102 3/4 x 44 5/8 in.)

Edward L. Whittemore Fund 1938.422

Location

not on view

Did you know?

Each of the Divine Generals has an identifying zodiac animal in his hair or headdress.

Description

From the 700s, people in Japan began praying to the Medicine Master Buddha (Yakushi Nyorai) for longevity. Yakushi is at the center of this image, flanked by the bodhisattvas of the sun and moon, Nikkō and Gakkō. The Twelve Divine Generals, a group of protective deities, surround him. Yakushi sits in a meditative pose with his right hand in a gesture bestowing fearlessness while his left hand holds a medicine jar. In the upper part of the painting, rectangles simulating decorative paper inscription slips contain excerpts from a sacred text about Yakushi, in which he asks that sick people who speak his name should become well and that all who hear his name might have their purity restored.

Provenance

by 1916–?

Joseph Bangs Warner [1848–1923], Boston, MA ¹

?–1938

Langdon Warner [1881–1955] sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art

1938–

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Provenance Footnotes

¹Joseph Bangs Warner was Langdon Warner’s father.

Citations

Catalogue of the Inaugural Exhibition June 6-September 20, 1916. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1916. Mentioned: cat. no. 10, p. 193 archive.org

Catalogue of the Inaugural Exhibition June 6-September 20, 1916. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1916. Mentioned: cat. no. 10, p. 193; Reproduced: [no page number, before p. 191] archive.org

Hollis, Howard. “Yakushi and the Twelve Generals.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 28, no. 4, 1941, pp. 47–55. Mentioned: pp. 47-55; Reproduced: cover and p. 55 www.jstor.org

Mayuyama, Junkichi 繭山順吉. Japanese Art in the West. [Tokyo]: Mayuyama & Co, 1966. Mentioned: p. 345; Reproduced: p. 72, pl. 84

Suzuki, Susumu 鈴木進, and Shin'ichi Seki 瀬木慎一. Bessatsu Taiyō: kaigai e ryūshutsushita hihō [別册太陽 : 海外へ流出した秘宝 = Sun, supplement : Japanese art in the world]. Tōkyō: Heibonsha, 1977. Reproduced: p. 41, fig. 31

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 373 archive.org

Admired from afar: masterworks of Japanese painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art [クリーブランド美術館展 : 名画でたどる日本の美 Kurīburando Bijutsukan ten: meiga de tadoru Nihon no bi ]. Tokyo: Tōkyō Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan, 2014. Reproduced: p. 27

Exhibition history

Inaugural Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (co-organizer) (June 6-September 20, 1916).

Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 119). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 29, 2003-March 15, 2004).

Exhibition of the Month: Herbs in Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 8-August 1, 1953).

Restoration at Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties. Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties (organizer) (May 22, 1997-April 28, 1998).

Admired from Afar: Masterworks of Japanese Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, Japan (January 15-February 23, 2014); Kyushu National Museum, Fukuoka, Japan (July 8-August 31, 2014).

Japanese Gallery 235 Rotation - September 2016-January 2017. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 19, 2016-January 8, 2017).

Japanese Religious Art (Japanese art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 8, 2021-April 3, 2022).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Medicine Master Buddha and the Twelve Divine Generals|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1938.422|year=1200s|access-date=26 March 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Medicine Master Buddha and the Twelve Divine Generals

Medicine Master Buddha and the Twelve Divine Generals

薬師如来及び十二神将像

Japan, Kamakura period

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Description

Provenance Footnotes

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