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Shōtoku Taishi at Sixteen
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
The 16-year-old prince regent Shōtoku Taishi, garbed in Buddhist vestments, bears an incense burner. He is flanked by two attendants; one carries religious texts in a box and the other holds a nyoi ceremonial Buddhist scepter. The two are sometimes identified as Shōtoku’s younger brother, Prince Eguri, and eldest son, Prince Yamashiro. Shōtoku has come to pray for his father, Emperor Yōmei (reigned 585–87), who is ill and on the point of death. Upon a miraculous recovery, the emperor accepted Buddhism.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineShōtoku Taishi at Sixteen (聖徳太子孝養像及び二王子像), 1400s-1500s. Japan, Muromachi period (1392–1573). Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk; image: 121.9 x 57.5 cm (48 x 22 5/8 in.); overall: 207.3 x 83.2 cm (81 5/8 x 32 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance and Greta Millikin Collection, 1964.278
