The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Shōtoku Taishi at Sixteen

1400s-1500s

Japan, Muromachi period

(1392–1573)
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Image: 121.9 x 57.5 cm (48 x 22 5/8 in.); Overall: 207.3 x 83.2 cm (81 5/8 x 32 3/4 in.)
Severance and Greta Millikin Collection 1964.278
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

One name for Shōtoku is "Prince Stable Door."

Description

The 16-year-old prince regent Shōtoku Taishi, garbed in Buddhist vestments, bears an incense burner. He is flanked by two attendants; one carries religious texts in a box and the other holds a nyoi ceremonial Buddhist scepter. The two
are sometimes identified as Shōtoku’s younger brother, Prince Eguri, and eldest son, Prince Yamashiro. Shōtoku has come to pray for his father, Emperor Yōmei (reigned 585–87), who is ill and on the point of death. Upon a miraculous
recovery, the emperor accepted Buddhism.
  • ?-1958
    (Victor Lloyd Hauge [1919-2013] and Osborne I. Hauge [1913-2004], Falls Church, VA, sold to Severance and Greta Millikin)
    1958-1964
    Severance A. [1895-1985] and Greta [Marguerite Steckerl] Millikin [1903-1989], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1964-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Catalogue of the Severance and Greta Millikin Collection. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1990. Mentioned: cat. no. 152, p. 87
  • Rinpa (琳派). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 23-October 3, 2021).
    Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 237). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (May 29-December 23, 2013).
    The Severance and Greta Millikin Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 5-September 2, 1990).
  • {{cite web|title=Shōtoku Taishi at Sixteen|url=false|author=|year=1400s-1500s|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1964.278