Sketch Copy of Natural Disasters, from the Seven Fortunes and Misfortunes (after 1773): Art, History and Details

Sketch Copy of Natural Disasters, from the Seven Fortunes and Misfortunes (after 1773) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This unmounted handscroll is a copy of the first of a three-scroll set painted by Maruyama Ōkyo (1733–1795) for Buddhist monk Yujō (1723–1773). It depicts people's unfortunate encounters with forces of nature from wind to beasts. Ōkyo's realistic, contemporary imagery was meant to evoke a sense of recognition and empathy in viewers, shocking them into avoidance of possible punishments.

Object facts

• Title: Sketch Copy of Natural Disasters, from the Seven Fortunes and Misfortunes
• Date: after 1773
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868) to Meiji period (1868–1912)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: handscroll; ink and color on paper
• Dimensions: 34 x 1714.5 cm (13 3/8 x 675 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Handscroll
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1993.132

A detail from the museum

Notations that appear throughout the scroll indicate colors and other details of the original painting.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• “1993 Annual Report.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 6 (July 1994): 143–218.

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.