Welcoming Descent of Jizō (1200s): Art, History and Details

Welcoming Descent of Jizō (1200s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The bodhisattva Jizō—an enlightened being who refuses to become a Buddha in order to aid other beings in their quest for enlightenment—appears as a Buddhist monk carrying a wish-fulfilling jewel and a golden staff topped with rings. He descends with each of his feet balanced atop a lotus, borne by clouds to save a suffering believer who has called out for his help. Jizō is well known among Buddhists for rescuing people from the many Buddhist hells.

Object facts

• Title: Welcoming Descent of Jizō
• Date: 1200s
• Culture: Japan, Kamakura period (1185–1333)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Hanging scroll; ink, color, gold, and cut gold on silk
• Dimensions: Image: 59 x 33.2 cm (23 1/4 x 13 1/16 in.); Overall: 120.7 x 51.4 cm (47 1/2 x 20 1/4 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1983.75

A detail from the museum

Jizō is well known for rescuing people from the many Buddhist hells.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Turner, Evan H. “Year in Review for 1983.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 71, no. 2 (February 1984): 38–79.
• Grotennuis, Elizabeth Ten. "Visions of a Transcendent Realm: Pure Land Images in the Cleveland Museum of Art." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 7 (November 1991): 274–300.
• Tōyō kaiga no seika: tokubetsuten: Kurīvurando Bijutsukan no korekushon kara [東洋絵画の精華: 特别展: クリーヴラント美術館のコレクションから= Highlights of Asian painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art]. Nara, Japan: Nara National Museum, 1998.

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.