Dragon King (11th/early 12th century): Artwork and History

Dragon King (11th/early 12th century) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Japan.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

This wooden sculpture is believed to belong to a group of more than twenty Shinto deities (kami) thought to have come from the Izumo district on the north coast of the island of Honshu. Thanks to recent research, it has been determined it is made from magnolia wood, a rare material for Shinto sculptures. The Dragon King, originally an Indian Hindu god, was gradually incorporated into the Buddhist pantheon. Veneration of this deity, who rules the seas, spread with Buddhism from India to China, and via Korea to Japan; there the Dragon King was further transformed into a Shinto god.

Object facts

• Title: Dragon King
• Date: 11th/early 12th century
• Artist attribution: Japan
• Place of origin: Japan
• Medium: Magnolia wood with traces of pigment
• Dimensions: H.: 102.2 cm (40 1/4 in.)
• Type: Religious/Ritual Object
• Department: Arts of Asia
• Reference number: 1957.242

Collection credit

Gift of Robert Allerton

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.