Kasuga Deer Mandala (mid-1300s–1400s): Art, History and Details

Kasuga Deer Mandala (mid-1300s–1400s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Riding on a rolling cloud, a spotted deer wears a brightly colored saddle. The saddle supports a branch of the evergreen Sakaki tree, trailing wisteria vines that cradle a large golden mirror. Within the mirror sit the five Buddhist manifestations (honjibutsu) of the deities (kami) of the Kasuga Grand Shrine in Nara. The presence of the deer—the vehicle of the deity Takemikazuchi no Mikoto of the first of the five halls of the shrine—and the characteristics of the mountain range at the top of the painting make clear the association with the sacred site of Kasuga. The painting was likely created for an individual’s personal devotions to the Kasuga deities

Object facts

• Title: Kasuga Deer Mandala
• Date: mid-1300s–1400s
• Culture: Japan, Nanbokuchō period (1333–92) to Muromachi period (1392–1573)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: hanging scroll; ink, color and gold on silk
• Dimensions: Image: 95.6 x 39.1 cm (37 5/8 x 15 3/8 in.); Mounted: 184.2 x 63.8 cm (72 1/2 x 25 1/8 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1988.19

A detail from the museum

The deity Takemikazuchi no Mikoto is shown as the Buddha Shakyamuni with a red robe.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• “The Year in Review for 1988.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 76, no. 2 (February 1989): 30–75.
• Shugyoku no Nihon bijutsu: Hosomi korekushon no zenbō to Bosuton, Kurīburando, Sakkurā no wadaisaku : kaikan isshūnen kinen [珠玉の日本美術 : 細見コレクションの全貌と、 ボストン、クリ－ブランド、 サックラ－ の話題作 : 開館一周年記念 = The Legacy of Japanese art]]. Chiba City, Japan: Chiba-shi Bijutsukan, 1996.
• Grossman, Nancy, James T. Ulak, Marjorie Williams, and Laurence Channing. Art of Japan: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2005.

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.