Portrait of Duli Xingyi (1671): Art, History and Details

Portrait of Duli Xingyi (1671) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Kita Genki (Japanese, active c. 1664–98); Duli Xingyi (Chinese, 1596–1672).

The work and its context

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

In this portrait, the Ōbaku school Buddhist monk Duli Xingyi (born Tai Li, 1596–1672), whose name is pronounced Dokuryū Shōeki in Japanese, sits upon a woven mat holding a ceremonial scepter known as a ruyi, or nyoi in Japanese. Above his head is an insciption he added to the painting in 1671, the year before his death. It may be translated to read: Contemplative emptiness: the moon suspended over the village at midnight. Suddenly my soul is startled by the howl of an ape. Who could know that it would arouse me beyond my senses, and bring me an inner vision from Mt. Sumeru. (translated by Stephen Addiss and Kwan S. Wong) Originally from what is now the city of Hangzhou in China, Duli emigrated to Japan in 1653, where he took monastic vows. His skills in calligraphy and seal carving were formidable. Painter Kita Genki combined Chinese brush styles he learned in Nagasaki with Western painting techniques to capture Duli's likeness.

Object facts

• Title: Portrait of Duli Xingyi
• Date: 1671
• Creator attribution: Kita Genki (Japanese, active c. 1664–98); Duli Xingyi (Chinese, 1596–1672)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
• Dimensions: Painting: 111.4 x 50.1 cm (43 7/8 x 19 3/4 in.); Mounted: 211.8 x 63.8 cm (83 3/8 x 25 1/8 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1965.31

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Nishimura, Tei 西村貞. Ōbaku gazōshi 黄檗畫像志. Tōkyō: Toritsugijo Sōgensha, 1934.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
• Nagami, Tokutarō 永見德太郎. Nagasaki no bijutsushi 長崎の美術史. Kyōto-shi: Rinsen Shoten, 1974.

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.