Halo for Buddha of the Future (Miroku Bosatsu) (late 600s): Art, History and Details

Halo for Buddha of the Future (Miroku Bosatsu) (late 600s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Buddhism was introduced to Japan in the sixth century. For early Japanese devotees, Buddhism offered the promise of salvation through faith in the Buddha of the Future, who would appear at the end of the world. The concept of eternal salvation held particular resonance with the Japanese aristocracy, who became the staunchest supporters of this new faith. Small sculptures like this one, with its gentle grace and powerful presence, were popular devotional objects.

Object facts

• Title: Halo for Buddha of the Future (Miroku Bosatsu)
• Date: late 600s
• Culture: Japan, Asuka period (538–710)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: cast bronze, incised, with traces of gilding
• Dimensions: Overall: 45.8 cm (18 1/16 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1950.86.b

A detail from the museum

The Sanskrit name of this being, Maitreya, derives from the Sanskrit word for friend, mita.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Edgell, George Harold. Illustrated Catalogue of a Special Loan Exhibition of Art Treasures from Japan. [Tokyo, Japan]: [Sanseido Press], 1936.
• Tomita, Kojiro. “The Special Exhibition of Art Treasures from Japan.” Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, vol. 34, no. 205, 1936, pp. 64–77.
• “Front Matter.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 37, no. 10, 1950.

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.