Prince Shōtoku at Age Two (Shōtoku Taishi) (early 1300s): Art, History and Details

Prince Shōtoku at Age Two (Shōtoku Taishi) (early 1300s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Two-year old Prince Shōtoku (573?–622?) places his palms together in a gesture called gasshō. Shōtoku played a major role in the introduction of Buddhism to Japan, and devotees of the prince commissioned painted and sculpted images commemorating important moments of his life. At age two, the prince faced east and chanted the name of the Buddha without having been taught the practice. This sculpture captures the fantastic event foreshadowing his future acts.

Object facts

• Title: Prince Shōtoku at Age Two (Shōtoku Taishi)
• Date: early 1300s
• Culture: Japan, Kamakura period (1185–1333)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: Wood with lacquer, color, and rock-crystal inlaid eyes
• Dimensions: height: 68.6 cm (27 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1989.76

A detail from the museum

Shōtoku Taishi had several titles. One translates to "the prince of the stable door" because he was said to have been born in the imperial stables.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James Campbell Weir in memory of Dr. and Mrs. William Hawksley Weir

Further reading listed by the museum

• Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review: Selections 1989.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 77, no. 2, 1990, pp. 38–78.
• Perkins, Larry David. Intimate Rituals and Personal Devotions: Spiritual Art Through the Ages. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida, Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, 2000.
• Grossman, Nancy, James T. Ulak, Marjorie Williams, and Laurence Channing. Art of Japan: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: 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.