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Additional Views

Apr 25, 2016

Deity

1100s

Japan, Heian period

(794–1185)

Magnolia wood with traces of color

Overall: 100 cm (39 3/8 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 1954.373

Location

not on view

Description

This unidentified sculpture represents a mature male figure with a long beard. His robes, crown-like head ornament, and hair arranged into a topknot resemble the attire and styling of members of the heavenly realm—tenbu in Japanese—of the Buddhist cosmos. The comparatively simple design, along with carving marks purposely left by the sculptor throughout the surface tend to be associated with sculptures of kami, deities venerated at shrines, or jinja.

Provenance

Ryūzaburō Umehara 梅原龍三郎 [1888-1986], Tokyo, Japan

?-1954

(Hollis & Company, New York, NY and Cleveland, OH, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1954-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Lee, Sherman E. “A Hand and an Image of Wood.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 44, no. 1, 1957, pp. 3–9. Reproduced: p. 7 www.jstor.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 906 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 275 archive.org

Mayuyama, Junkichi 繭山順吉. Japanese Art in the West. [Tokyo]: Mayuyama & Co, 1966. Mentioned: p. 342; Reproduced: p. 24, pl. 28

The Human Adventure IV, grade 6, vol. I. Cleveland: Educational Research Council of Greater Cleveland, 1966-1967. Reproduced: p. 325

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 275 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 370 archive.org

Zenzo Shimizu 清水善三. "Japanese Sculptures in America and Canada," Ars Buddhica 佛教藝術, no. 126 (September 1979), part I, pp. 67-88. Reproduced: fig. 21

Mertz, Mechtild, Suyako Tazuru, Shirō Itō, and Cynthea J. Bogel. "A Group of Twelfth-Century Japanese Kami Statues and Considerations of Material Intentionality: Collaborative Research Among Wood Scientists and Art Historians." Journal of Asian Humanities at Kyushu University, vol. 7 (Spring 2022), pp. 127–159. Reproduced: fig. 5

Exhibition history

Japanese Art Exhibition. Albuquerque Museum of Art, History and Science, Albuquerque, NM (1980).

Art: The International Language. The Cleveland Museum of Art (October 2-November 4, 1956).

Katachi: Form and Spirit in Japanese Art. The Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM (organizer) (March 2-June 8, 1980).

Japanese Gallery 235 Rotation - July 2017-January 2018. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (July 15, 2017-January 2, 2018).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Deity|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1954.373|year=1100s|access-date=29 September 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Deity

Deity

Japan, Heian period

Location

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