Departure from Kashima (1336–92): Art, History and Details

Departure from Kashima (1336–92) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The kami Takemikazuchi from Kashima (in present-day Ibaraki Prefecture) departs on a white deer for Mount Mikasa in Nara, where he takes up residence. The five Kasuga kami are presented within a golden circle supported by the branches of a sakaki tree, from which trail five white paper streamers—indicating the purity and sacredness of the five shrine halls of the complex—as well as blossoming wisteria vines, a symbol of the Fujiwara family. The two figures walking along near the stag’s back legs are Nakatomi no Tokifū and his younger brother Hidetsura, who have followed Takemikazuchi and become priests of Kasuga Taisha.

Object facts

• Title: Departure from Kashima
• Date: 1336–92
• Culture: Japan, Nanbokuchō period (1336–92)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
• Dimensions: Overall: 212.7 x 63.3 cm (83 3/4 x 24 15/16 in.); Including mounting: 119.4 x 41 cm (47 x 16 1/8 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1917.93

Collection credit

The Worcester R. Warner Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.

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.