Portrait of Sugawara Michizane (late 1400s–early 1500s): Art, History and Details

Portrait of Sugawara Michizane (late 1400s–early 1500s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Yōgetsu (Japanese, active late 1400s to early 1500s).

The work and its context

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

Sugawara Michizane (845–903) was a Kyoto aristocrat who died in exile in Dazaifu in Japan’s southern island of Kyushu, having been slandered at court. His vengeful spirit was later pacified by the construction of shrines in his name. His image was incorporated into the repertoire of Zen Buddhist figure painting, which included bodhisattvas, Daoist immortals, and other enlightened beings. Eminent monk Sakugen Shūryō (1501–1579) inscribed this work, which was painted by monk-painter Yōgetsu of Kyushu, who traveled east to study either in Kyoto or Kamakura. The Chinese-style poem is an ode to Michizane in his guise as the deity Tenjin.

Object facts

• Title: Portrait of Sugawara Michizane
• Date: late 1400s–early 1500s
• Creator attribution: Yōgetsu (Japanese, active late 1400s to early 1500s)
• Culture: Japan, Muromachi period (1392–1573)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
• Dimensions: Painting: 100.8 x 50.2 cm (39 11/16 x 19 3/4 in.); Mounted: 189.2 x 65.2 cm (74 1/2 x 25 11/16 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 2015.491

Collection credit

Gift from the Collection of George Gund III

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.