Shōtoku Taishi at Sixteen
1400–1599
- Medium
- hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
- Dimensions
- 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.)
- Genre
- painting
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Styles
Tags
Japan, Muromachi period (1392–1573)
About
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.