The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 29, 2025

Kasuga Shrine Mandala

early 1300s
(1185–1333)
Hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold on silk
Overall: 193.6 x 58.8 cm (76 1/4 x 23 1/8 in.); Painting only: 110 x 40.9 cm (43 5/16 x 16 1/8 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 2015.137
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Sacred deer, the vehicles of the Kasuga deities, move about the shrine compound.

Description

A golden path beginning at the bottom of this painting leads up to four red-and-white buildings to the left, then to a fifth building on the right. These are the five shrine halls of Kasuga Taisha in Nara. Above and beyond the buildings is a sacred mountain range––with Mount Mikasa at center, Mount Wakakusa in gold to the left, and the sun or moon rising up behind the mountains. Sacred deer appear here and there. Five figures representing the original Buddhist forms of the five kami of the shrine complex stand on clouds above the mountains.
  • before 1978
    Private Collection, Japan
    (Tokyo Art Club auction, Tokyo, Japan, sold to Mr. Tajima of London Gallery)
    ?–2015
    (London Gallery, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2015–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum Masters: 2016-17 Companion Guide. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 84–85
    Vilbar, Sinéad. “Acquisitions 2015: Japanese Art.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 56, no. 2 (March/April 2016): 34–35. Reproduced: p. 34, 35; Mentioned: p. 35. archive.org
    編集・発行奈良国立博物館., and hakkō Nara Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan henshū. 春日信仰を中心とした南都における神祇信仰の展開とその遺品に関する総合的研究. Edited by 奈良国立博物館 and Nara Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan. Nara-shi Noboriōji-chō: 奈良国立博物館, 2017. Reproduced: pp. 72–73, fig. 10
    Vilbar, Sinéad, and Kevin Gray Carr. Shinto: Discovery of the Divine in Japanese Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2019. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 98-99, no. 36
  • Shinto: Discovering the Divine in Japanese Art 神道－日本美術における神性の発見. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 9-June 30, 2019).
  • {{cite web|title=Kasuga Shrine Mandala|url=false|author=|year=early 1300s|access-date=29 April 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2015.137