The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

Bodhisattva

mid-1200s

Japan, Kamakura period

(1185–1333)
wood with traces of lacquer, polychromy, and cut gold lear (kirikane)
Overall: 64.8 cm (25 1/2 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1983.18
Location: Not on view

Description

A Bosatsu (Bodhisattva in Sanskrit) is a being that has attained enlightenment but has compassionately refrained from entering nirvana in order to save others. As an attendant of Buddha, Bosatsu assumes many forms, all of which are worshipped as deities in Japanese Buddhism.
  • ?–1983
    (Robert H. Ellsworth, Ltd., New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1983–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Turner, Evan H. “Year in Review for 1983.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 71, no. 2 (February 1984): 38–79. Mentioned: no. 259, pp. 51 and 79; Reproduced: no. 259, p. 50 www.jstor.org
    Inseiki no butsuzō: Jōchō kara Unkei e: tokubetsu tenrankai [院政期の仏像 : 定朝から運慶へ: 特別展覧会 = Buddhist sculptures: from mid-11th to the end of 12th centuries: special exhibition]. Kyoto: Kyoto National Museum 京都国立博物館, 1991. no. 82
    Inseiki no butsuzō: Teichō kara Unkei e [Buddhist Sculptures in the Insei Political Period = 院政期の仏像 : 定朝から運慶へ]. Tōkyō: 岩波書店, 1992. Reproduced: p. 159, fig. 72 (color), pp. 190–193, fig. 72
    Yūzō Yamane 山根有三. Zaigai bijutsu [在外美術 = Selections of Japanese Art from Western Collections]. Revised second edition. Tōkyō: Shogakkan 小学館, 1994. Mentioned: p. 237, no. 124; Reproduced: p. 216, no. 124
  • Buddhist Sculptures in the Insei Political Period. Kyoto National Museum, Kyoto, Japan (organizer) (February 5-March 17, 1991).
    The Year in Review for 1983. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 22-April 8, 1984).
  • {{cite web|title=Bodhisattva|url=false|author=|year=mid-1200s|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1983.18