The Illustrated Miraculous Origins of the Yūzū Nenbutsu School (early 1300s): Art, History and Details

The Illustrated Miraculous Origins of the Yūzū Nenbutsu School (early 1300s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This painting is the second of a set of two illustrated handscrolls. The first scroll depicts the biography of the Japanese Buddhist monk Ryōnin. This scroll begins with scenes of Ryōnin’s death and relates episodes illustrating the efficacy of following his teachings. Ryōnin asserted the total interconnectedness of all things and the spiritual benefit of chanting the name of the Buddha Amida for one another.

Object facts

• Title: The Illustrated Miraculous Origins of the Yūzū Nenbutsu School
• Date: early 1300s
• Culture: Japan, Kamakura period (1185–1333)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Handscroll; ink, color, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Painting: 29.7 x 1232.4 cm (11 11/16 x 485 3/16 in.); Mounted: 30.3 x 1373.5 cm (11 15/16 x 540 3/4 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Handscroll
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1956.87

A detail from the museum

The other scroll from this two-scroll set belongs to the Art Institute of Chicago.

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt, John L. Severance, and Edward L. Whittemore Funds

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
• Lee, Sherman E. Japanese Decorative Style. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1961.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.

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.