Shinto Deity (900s): Art, History and Details

Shinto Deity (900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

These sculptures represent kami, the name for deities associated with the Japanese religious tradition known as Shinto. They are said to have originally been created for the Usa Hachiman shrine in Oita on the island of Kyushu. Usa Hachiman Shrine houses four main kami: Hime Okami, who assists those engaged in agriculture and sea travel; the legendary 5th-century emperor Ojin deified as the kami Hachiman; Empress Jingu; and the kami of Mount Kawara, who aids copper miners. The identities of these two figures are unknown, but they belong to a larger group containing at least three other deities.

Object facts

• Title: Shinto Deity
• Date: 900s
• Culture: Japan, Heian period (794–1185)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: wood, with traces of polychromy
• Dimensions: Overall: 50.3 x 38.1 cm (19 13/16 x 15 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1978.3.1

A detail from the museum

Traces of pigment on the surface of this sculpture indicate it was once painted.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Setsu Gatōdō 瀬津雅陶堂 and Shun Etō 衛藤駿. Shinzō. Tokyo: Setsu Gatodo Co., Ltd., 1977.
• Yamane, Yūzō 山根有三, Shūjirō Shimada 島田修二郎, and Terukazu Akiyama 秋山光和. Zaigai Nihon no shihō [在外日本の至宝 = Japanese Art: Selections from Western Collections, vol. 8 ]. Tōkyō: Mainichi Shinbunsha, 1979.
• Sasaki, Kōzō 佐々木剛三 and Hideo Okumura 奧村秀雄. Shintō no bijutsu: Kasuga, Hie, Kumano 神道の美術 : 春日, 日吉, 熊野. Tōkyō: Gakushū Kenkyūsha, 1979.

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.