Benevolence, from The Five Virtues (1767): Art, History and Details

Benevolence, from The Five Virtues (1767) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Suzuki Harunobu (Japanese, 1724–1770).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This print belongs to a series of five depicting the cardinal virtues of Confucianism. In this image, a courtesan demonstrates benevolence by shaving her attendant’s neck. The other virtues are righteousness, decorum, knowledge, and fidelity. A poem at the top reads as follows: "If you would dwell on the path of the heart, / that is kind to others, / then must you not also be someone, / who suppresses even her own name?"

Object facts

• Title: Benevolence, from The Five Virtues
• Date: 1767
• Creator attribution: Suzuki Harunobu (Japanese, 1724–1770)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Print
• Technique: color woodblock print
• Dimensions: Sheet: 27.6 x 20.4 cm (10 7/8 x 8 1/16 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1949.124

Collection credit

Bequest of Mrs. Madeleine Hamill in memory of Lawrence Hamill

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.