The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 24, 2025

Reading Stand with Chrysanthemums and Autumn Grasses

early 1600s
(1573–1615)
Wood with lacquer, sprinkled gold powder (maki-e), and metal fittings
Overall: 53.3 x 30.5 x 45.7 cm (21 x 12 x 18 in.)
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1976.15
Location: 235A Japanese

Did You Know?

Dew on chrysanthemum is seasonal imagery symbolizing the approach of winter.

Description

Japanese reading stands often incorporate motifs associated with seasonal poetry. The combination of long, narrow, miscanthus grass, bush clover with its small, ovoid leaves, and chrysanthemum with its many-petaled blossoms is classic autumnal imagery. One lacquer technique featured prominently on the stand is sprinkled gold in low relief (hiramaki-e). Pear-skin ground design (nashiji-e) is used for the slopes of the ground and in some of the leaves.
  • ?–1976
    (Mayuyama and Company, Tokyo, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1976–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1976.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 64, no. 2 (February 1977): 39–79. Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 160, pp. 69 and 79 www.jstor.org
    Yoshimura Motoo 吉村元雄. Kōdaiji makie 高台寺蒔絵. [Kyōto-shi]: Kyoto National Museum 京都国立博物館, 1971.
    Cunningham, Michael R. The Triumph of Japanese Style: 16th-Century Art in Japan. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Published by the Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with the Indiana University Press, 1991. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 118
    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. 81
  • Practice and Play in Japanese Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 20-November 30, 2025).
    The Triumph of Japanese Style: 16th Century Art in Japan. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 19-December 1, 1991).
    Autumn Grasses: Arts of the Momoyama Period (1573-1615). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 4-December 11, 1988).
    Year in Review, 1976. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 1-March 6, 1977).
  • {{cite web|title=Reading Stand with Chrysanthemums and Autumn Grasses|url=false|author=|year=early 1600s|access-date=24 June 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1976.15