Welcoming a World Treasure

In June 2025, the Cleveland Museum of Art acquired an exceptionally rare hanging scroll dated to the mid-14th-century Goryeo dynasty of Korea—one of only 10 known surviving examples in the world—depicting a standing image of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva (地藏菩薩). Shown as a youthful Buddhist monk in simple monastic robes, holding a staff and a wish-fulfilling jewel, Ksitigarbha is believed to descend into the underworld to rescue sinners suffering in purgatory. 

Revered as the bodhisattva of salvation, Ksitigarbha served as a central focus of worship, both for accumulating merit to secure a blissful afterlife for the living worshippers and for interceding on behalf of the deceased. Infrared photography of the CMA’s scroll reveals a four-character inscription in black ink at the lower right corner: 青龍公用, or “for the use of Lord Blue Dragon.” This inscription suggests that the painting may once have been housed in a private prayer hall within an elite household. 

The scroll first drew scholarly attention in 1978, when Dr. Yoshida Hiroshi, then chief curator of the Yamato Bunkakan Museum, examined it in preparation for a landmark exhibition on Goryeo Buddhist painting. A decade later, in 1989, Professor Chung Woo-taek, a leading authority on the subject, published the first in-depth study of the work. He dated it to no later than the mid-14th century and praised its masterful balance of naturalism and stylization—hallmarks of the finest Goryeo Buddhist painting. Although well-known within academic circles, the painting has never been exhibited publicly. That changes in fall 2026, when this extraordinary acquisition makes its debut in Ten Kings of Hell: The Afterlife in Medieval Korea, displayed alongside images of the 10 kings who preside over the Buddhist underworld.

As one of the exceedingly rare surviving masterworks of its kind, the CMA’s Ksitigarbha stands in distinguished company with a renowned example in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. While the two works share striking stylistic and technical affinities—suggesting they may have originated in the same workshop—the CMA’s painting is substantially larger, exceeding the Met’s version by 18.1 centimeters in height and 6.4 centimeters in width. This larger scale preserves an even greater richness of detail, with refined brushwork, luminous pigments, and lavish applications of gold. Together, these qualities make the CMA’s acquisition of this Ksitigarbha scroll one of the most momentous achievements in the history of Korean art entering Western museums.