The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 23, 2022

Swift Bull from the Ten Swift Bulls

駿牛図　断簡

late 1200s-early 1300s

Japan, Kamakura period

(1185-1333)

Section of a handscroll mounted as a hanging scroll; ink and slight color on paper

Overall: 27.1 x 31.9 cm (10 11/16 x 12 9/16 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 1952.286

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

We know the original scroll had ten bulls because a copy of the complete scroll exists.

Description

This work was once part of a handscroll depicting ten bulls in various postures. The whereabouts of nine of the ten bulls are known, and all have been remounted as hanging scrolls. The original scroll likely celebrated prized creatures used by aristocrats to pull their conveyances.

Provenance
Shimbi Tanaka, Tokyo, Japan
?-1952
(Hollis & Company, Cleveland, OH and New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1952-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Toda, Kenji. Japanese Scroll Painting. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1935. p. 102
Tōru Mori 森暢. "Sunggyu Zukan no Tsuite" 駿牛図卷に就いて. In Meihin techō: Nihon bijutsu ronshū 名品手帖: 日本美術論集. Ōguchi, Masao 大口理夫, editor. Tōkyō: Sōgeisha, 1944. Vol. 1, p. 97
Lee, Sherman E. "One of the Ten Fast Bulls." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 40, no. 9 (1953): 199–200. Mentioned: pp. 199–200 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. 913 archive.org
Lee, Sherman E. Japanese Decorative Style. Tokyo: Makoto Nakao, 1962. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 32-33; cat. no. 27 archive.org
Lee, Sherman E. Tea Taste in Japanese Art. New York, NY: The Asia House Gallery, dist. by H. Abrams, 1963. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 57, p. 107
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 276 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 276 archive.org
Masterpieces of Japanese Art; [Catalogue of the Exhibition] October 4 Through November 30, 1969, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, 1969. Reproduced: pl. 20
Stern, Harold P. Birds, Beasts, Blossoms, and Bugs: The Nature of Japan. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1976. Mentioned: cat. no. 4, p. 16; Reproduced: p. 19
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 374 archive.org
Lee, Sherman E., Michael R. Cunningham, and Ursula Korneitchouk. One Thousand Years of Japanese Art (650-1650): From the Cleveland Museum of Art: Catalogue. New York: Japan Society, 1981.
Mayuyama, Junkichi 繭山順吉. Bijutsushō no yorokobi [美術商のよろこび The Joys of an Art Dealer]. Tokyo, Japan: Mayuyama Junkichi, 1988. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 89-99, pl. 35
Kita, Sandy. “The Bulls of Chōmyōji: A Joint Work by Sōtatsu and Mitsuhiro.” Monumenta Nipponica, vol. 47, no. 4, 1992, pp. 495–519. Reproduced: p. 505 www.jstor.org
"1992 Annual Report." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 6 (1993): 215-95. Mentioned: p. 247 www.jstor.org
Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 194–195
Wada, Stephanie, Gen P. Sakamoto, and Kuoʻan. The Oxherder: A Zen Parable Illustrated. New York: George Braziller, 2002. Reproduced: fig. 10, pp. 28–29
Art of Japan: Paintings, Prints and Screens : Selected Articles from Orientations, 1984-2002. Hong Kong: Orientations Magazine, 2002. Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 1, 6-6b, pp.134–135
Grossman, Nancy, James T. Ulak, Marjorie Williams, and Laurence Channing. Art of Japan: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2005. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 31
Exhibition history

Tea taste in Japanese art. Asia House Gallery, New York, NY (1963).

Masterpieces of Japanese Art. Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, Texas (October 4-November 30, 1969)

Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 120). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 11-July 13, 2004).

Japanese Decorative Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art (August 30-October 15, 1961).

Juxtapositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art (September 11-October 10, 1965).

Asian Autumn: Masterpieces from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 17, 1991-January 5, 1992).

120th Anniversary Exhibition: Masterpieces in the Tokyo National Museum. Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, Japan (organizer) (October 13-November 23, 1992).

Streams and Mountains Without End: Asian Art and the Legacy of Sherman E. Lee at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 27-August 23, 2009).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1952.286