Welcoming Descent of Amida with Twenty-Five Bodhisattvas (mid-1300s): Art, History and Details

Welcoming Descent of Amida with Twenty-Five Bodhisattvas (mid-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 depicts the Buddha Amida arriving to escort a dying person to his Pure Land, or Western Paradise. He is attended by an entourage of 25 bodhisattvas, enlightened beings who are committed to serving others, many of whom provide orchestral accompaniment to herald the momentous occasion. The bodhisattva Kannon kneels, holding a lotus dais for the deceased to ride to their destination.

Object facts

• Title: Welcoming Descent of Amida with Twenty-Five Bodhisattvas
• Date: mid-1300s
• Culture: Japan, Nanbokuchō period (1336–92)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Hanging scroll; ink, color, gold, silver, and cut gold on silk
• Dimensions: Painting: 164.5 x 137.7 cm (64 3/4 x 54 3/16 in.); Mounted: 255 x 166.6 cm (100 3/8 x 65 9/16 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 2025.138

A detail from the museum

One of the percussive instruments played by the bodhisattvas in the painting is called a paiban or hakuban in Japanese.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Pal, Pratapaditya, Robert L. Brown, Robert E. Fisher, George Kuwayama, and Amy G. Poster. Light of Asia: Buddha Sakyamuni in Asian Art. Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984.
• Nenge mishō: Bukkyō bijutsu no miryoku [拈華微笑: 仏敎美術の魅力 = Buddha's smile: masterpieces of Japanese Buddhist art]. Tōkyō: Rondon Gyararī, 2000.
• Tajima, Mitsuru, and Kayoko Komori. Nenge mishō II: hotoke no michi [拈華微笑ねんげみしょう II : 仏の道 = Buddha's smile II : transcending time and space]. Tokyo: London Gallery Co., Ltd., 2010.

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.