The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of January 29, 2023

Embroidered Welcoming Descent of Amida Triad

繡仏阿弥陀三尊来迎図

1400s

Japan, Muromachi period

(1392–1573)

Hanging scroll; silk and plant fiber embroidery

Embroidery: 109.1 x 37.2 cm (42 15/16 x 14 5/8 in.); Mounted: 173.1 x 49.4 cm (68 1/8 x 19 7/16 in.)

Gift of the American Foundation for the Maud E. and Warren H. Corning Botanical Collection 1966.513

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

The <em>Contemplation Sutra</em> is a sacred Buddhist text often used in Pure Land Buddhism.

Description

The Buddha Amida arrives here to welcome a person to his Pure Land at the moment of death. A monk, a woman, and a child sit with their hands in prayer, and a beam of light emanating from Amida extends toward them. The inscription at the top indicates that the compassion of Amida Buddha always flows impartially to all those who recite his name, a quote from the Contemplation Sutra.

Provenance
?–1966
American Foundation for the Maud E. and Warren H. Corning Collection, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
1966–
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
“Year in Review.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 54, no. 10, 1967, pp. 302–346. Reproduced: no. 175, p. 336; Mentioned: p. 347 www.jstor.org
Grotenhuis, Elizabeth ten. “Visions of a Transcendent Realm: Pure Land Images in the Cleveland Museum of Art.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 78, no. 7, 1991, pp. 274–300. Reproduced: p. 290, fig. 14 www.jstor.org
Grotenhuis ten, Elizabeth. Japanese Mandalas: Representations of Sacred Geography. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1999. Reproduced: fig. 85, p. 141
Grotenhuis, Elizabeth ten. “Bodily Gift and Spiritual Pledge: Human hair in Japanese Buddhist Embroideries." Orientations, Fan/Feb 2004, pp. 31–35. Reproduced: p. 31, fig. 1; p. 32, fig. 1a
Li, Yuhang. “Embroidering Guanyin: Constructions of the Divine through Hair.” East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine, no. 36 (2012): 131–166. Reproduced: p. 157, fig. 2; Mentioned: p. 139 www.jstor.org
Exhibition history

Year in Review: 1967. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (November 29-December 31, 1967).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1966.513