id:			172573
accession number:	2015.63
share license status:	CC0
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/2015.63
updated:		2022-01-04 18:03:49.479000

Descent of the Nine Luminaries and the Seven Stars at Kasuga, mid- to late 1300s. Japan, Nanbokuchō period (1336-92). Hanging scroll; ink, color, gold and cut gold on silk; mounted: 184.5 x 58.5 cm (72 5/8 x 23 1/16 in.); painting only: 106 x 42 cm (41 3/4 x 16 9/16 in.); with knobs: 184.5 x 63.5 cm (72 5/8 x 25 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Lillian M. Kern Memorial Fund 2015.63

title:				Descent of the Nine Luminaries and the Seven Stars at Kasuga
title in original language:	北斗九曜春日降臨図
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			mid- to late 1300s
creation date earliest:		1336
creation date latest:		1392
current location:		
creditline:			Lillian M. Kern Memorial Fund
copyright:			

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culture:	Japan, Nanbokuchō period (1336-92)
technique:	Hanging scroll; ink, color, gold and cut gold on silk
department:	Japanese Art
collection:	ASIAN - Hanging scroll
type:		Painting
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

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measurements: Mounted: 184.5 x 58.5 cm (72 5/8 x 23 1/16 in.); Painting only: 106 x 42 cm (41 3/4 x 16 9/16 in.); with knobs: 184.5 x 63.5 cm (72 5/8 x 25 in.)
state of the work:	
edition of the work: 	

support materials:


inscriptions:

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

	title:		Japanese and Korean Gallery Rotation
	opening date:   2015-07-06T04:00:00
	<i>Japanese and Korean Gallery Rotation</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art (July 6, 2015-January 4, 2016).

	title:		Shinto: Discovering the Divine in Japanese Art 神道－日本美術における神性の発見
	opening date:   2019-04-09T04:00:00
	<i>Shinto: Discovering the Divine in Japanese Art 神道－日本美術における神性の発見</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 9-June 30, 2019).

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

* <em>Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 235)</em>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 20-November 16, 2015).

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PROVENANCE

	(Piasa Auction house, Paris, France, June 13, 2014, Lot. 261, sold to Leighton R. Longhi Inc.)
	date: June 13, 2014
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


	(Leighton R. Longhi Inc., New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
	date: 2014-15
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


	The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
	date: 2015-
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


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fun fact: 
A 19th-century copy of this painting in ink and light color exists at the Kyoto City University of Arts.

digital description: 


wall description: 
This medieval religious painting shows celestial beings descending from the heavens into the Kasuga Shrine, a major religious site in Japan's ancient capital, Nara. The moon and the Kasuga mountain range appear in the uppermost portion of the painting, as does a red shrine entrance gate, or <em>torii</em>. In the upper part of the painting, figural representations of the stars in the constellation known as the Big Dipper in the West descend from right to left on cloud banks. In the lower part, the Nine Luminaries (Sanskrit: <em>Navagraha</em>) that emerged from the Vedic tradition—the sun and moon; the planets Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus, and Mercury; and personifications of the fluctuating lunar nodes—descend in similar fashion. The painting uses the "deities in descent" scheme originating in China, as well as the original Buddhist form mandala (Japanese: <em>honjibutsu mandarazu</em>) format prevalent in medieval Japanese Shinto-Buddhist painting, to generate an image connected to the worship of celestial bodies in Esoteric Buddhism.
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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

	Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Museum Masters: 2016-17 Companion Guide.</em> [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016.
	page number: 	Mentioned and reproduced: P. 84-85
	url:		

	Vilbar, Sinéad. "A Celestial Landing: The Seven Stars and the Nine Celestials Descending at Kasuga." <em>Arts of Asia</em> 48, no. 3(May-June 2018): 68-77.
	page number: 	Reproduced: p. 68, fig. 1; p. 72, fig. 8 (detail)
	url:		

	Vilbar, Sinéad, and Kevin Gray Carr. <em>Shinto: Discovery of the Divine in Japanese Art. </em>Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2019.
	page number: 	Mentioned and reproduced: p. 242-245, no. 96
	url:		

	Longhi, Leighton R. <em>Leighton R. Longhi: Forty-Five Years in Asian Art. </em>[New York, N.Y.]: Leighton R. Longhi, 2019.
	page number: 	Reproduced: p. 49, fig. 30
	url:		

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IMAGES

web:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2015.63/2015.63_web.jpg
print:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2015.63/2015.63_print.jpg
full:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2015.63/2015.63_full.tif