Kasuga Shrine Mandala
Unknown Artist
early 1300s
Medium
Hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold on silk
Dimensions
193.6 × 58.8 cm · painting only: 110 × 40.9 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Japanese Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
Accession Number
2015.137
About this artwork
A golden path beginning at the bottom of this painting leads up to four red-and-white buildings to the left, then to a fifth building on the right. These are the five shrine halls of Kasuga Taisha in Nara. Above and beyond the buildings is a sacred mountain range––with Mount Mikasa at center, Mount Wakakusa in gold to the left, and the sun or moon rising up behind the mountains. Sacred deer appear here and there. Five figures representing the original Buddhist forms of the five kami of the shrin...