The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 5, 2023

Shōtoku Taishi at Sixteen

聖徳太子孝養像及び二王子像

early 1300s

Japan, Kamakura period

(1185-1333)

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

Fun Fact

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.

Provenance
?-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
Citations
Catalogue of the Severance and Greta Millikin Collection. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1990. Mentioned: cat. no. 152, p. 87
Exhibition history

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).

Rinpa (琳派) (Japanese gallery rotation) 235. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 23-October 3, 2021).

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