The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Shakyamuni Emerging from the Mountains

1244

China, Southern Song dynasty

(1127-1279)
hanging scroll; ink on paper
Painting: 70.7 x 30.3 cm (27 13/16 x 11 15/16 in.); Overall with knobs: 166.4 x 49.9 cm (65 1/2 x 19 5/8 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1970.2
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The painting was inscribed by the abbot of Jingde Temple 景德寺 of Mount Tiantong 天童山 near Ningbo 寧波.

Description

Shakyamuni emerged from the mountains after years of ascetic practices, which anticipated his sermon in Deer Park and attainment of enlightenment under the bodhi tree. However, this figure of Shakyamuni can be interpreted as having already achieved enlightenment and reentered the earthly world to spread the dharma (Buddhist law). Chijue Daoching’s inscription mentions his indifferent glance at the morning star, suggesting nonattachment:

Entering the mountains he was much too thin and withered.
The snow is overlaid with frost—it is cold.
Casting an indifferent glance, he saw a [morning] star.
Why should he once again emerge among the world of men.
  • Hisamatsu family 久松家, Shikoku Island, Japan
    Yamashita family 山下家, Japan
    Hara family 原家, Yokohama, Japan
    ?–1970
    (Mayuyama & Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1970–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • "New Oriental art galleries at Cleveland." Apollo: A Journal of the Arts. August 1970, Vol. 92, pp. 148-151. Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 6, p. 150
    Lee, Sherman E. “Zen in Art: Art in Zen.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 59, no. 9 (November 1972): 238–259. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 240–241, figs. 1,1a www.jstor.org
    Lee, Sherman Emery, and James Robinson. The Colors of Ink: Chinese Paintings and Related Ceramics from the Cleveland Museum of Art. New York: Asia Society; distributed by New York Graphic Society, 1974. cat. no. 6
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 343 archive.org
    Zainie, Carla M. “Sources for Some Early Japanese Ink Paintings.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 65, no. 7 (September 1978): 232–246. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 232–235, 239, figs. 1, 4, 9 www.jstor.org
    Ho, Wai-kam, Sherman E. Lee, Laurence Sickman, and Marc F. Wilson. Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting: The Collections of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1980. Reproduced: cat. no. 65, pp. 83-84
    Little, Stephen. “Chinese Calligraphy.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 74, no. 9 (November 1987): 372–403. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 384, fig. 15a 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. 64–65
    Li, Huishu. Exquisite Moments: West Lake & Southern Song Art. New York, NY: China Institute Gallery, China Institute: Distributed by Art Media Resources, Ltd., 2001. Reproduced: cat. no. 32, pp. 120-121
    Chung, Anita, Julia Frances Andrews, Kuiyi Shen, Tamaki Maeda, and Aida Yuen Wong. Chinese art in an age of revolution: Fu Baoshi (1904-1965). Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2011. Reproduced: p. 38. fig. 20
    Chou, Ju-hsi and Anita Chung. Silent poetry: Chinese paintings from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 82–84
    Chou, Ju-hsi and Anita Chung. Silent poetry: Chinese paintings from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015. Mentioned: pp. 82, 84
    He Xiangning mei shu guan, and Guo ji xue shu yan tao hui. Jie lu fu sang: liu Ri hua jia de Zhongguo hua gai liang (yi jiu ling wu - yi jiu san qi): Guo ji xue shu yan tao hui lun wen ji = Passing through Japan: the reform of painting by Chinese artists studied in Japan (1905-1937): Collected Essays of the International Symposium. Guangzhou Shi: Ling nan mei shu chu ban she, 2018. Reproduced: p. 204
    Giuffrida, Noelle. Separating Sheep from Goats: Sherman E. Lee and Chinese Art Collecting in Postwar America. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2018. Reproduced: p. 153, fig. 84
    Itakura, Masaaki. “Jiangnan’s Beauty: Song and Yuan Paintings Prized in Medieval and Early Modern Japan.” In China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta, edited by Clarissa Von Spee, 64–71. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 67–68, fig. 35
  • Chinese Buddhist Art Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 12-November 5, 2023).
    Main Gallery Rotation (Gallery 244): The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 7, 2015-February 10, 2016).
    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).
    Awakenings: Zen Figure Painting in Medieval Japan. Japan Society Gallery, New York, NY (organizer) (March 22-June 17, 2007).
    Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 119). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 16-October 28, 2003).
    West Lake and the Mapping of Southern Song Art. China Institute in America, New York, NY (organizer) (September 13-December 9, 2001).
    Asian Autumn: Masterpieces from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 17, 1991-January 5, 1992).
    Suibokuga: Japanese Ink Painting. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 1, 1985-February 24, 1986).
    Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (November 7, 1980-January 4, 1981); The Cleveland Museum of Art (February 11-March 29, 1981); Tokyo National Museum (October 4-November 17, 1982).
    The Colors of Ink. Asia House Galleries (January 10-March 3, 1974); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 9-May 12, 1974).
    Year in Review: 1970. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-March 7, 1971).
  • {{cite web|title=Shakyamuni Emerging from the Mountains|url=false|author=|year=1244|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1970.2