The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Kannon

c. 1868–1912

Japan, Meiji period

(1868–1912)
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk; inscription in gold ink on silk
Overall: 227.9 x 75 cm (89 3/4 x 29 1/2 in.); Painting only: 155 x 51.4 cm (61 x 20 1/4 in.)
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 1986.8
Location: Not on view

Description

The bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Kannon in Japanese) stands with each of his feet upon a lotus blossom. The Buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appears in his headdress. The text written in golden characters attached to the top of the painting is a portion of a religious text extolling the virtues of the bodhisattva. The painter was inspired by Buddhist paintings of the Korean Goreyo period (918–1392); he attempted to reproduce the diaphanous shawl sometimes seen in such early works.
  • ?–1986
    (Yanagi Fine Art Shop, Kyoto, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1986–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1986.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 74, no. 2 (February 1987): 38–79. Reproduced: p. 54; Mentioned: p. 77, no. 221 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. 236–237
    Fishbein, Richard. "Collecting Kannon." Impressions: Official Publication of the Ukiyo-E Society of America 35 (2014): 177–179. Reproduced: fig. 2, p. 178
  • Year in Review for 1986. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 4-March 15, 1987).
  • {{cite web|title=Kannon|url=false|author=|year=c. 1868–1912|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1986.8