Stand-in Fugen

Kitao Masayoshi (Japanese, 1761–1824)

late 1700s–early 1800s

Medium

hanging scroll; ink and color on silk

Classification

Painting

Dimensions

Painting only: 114.3 x 56.2 cm (45 x 22 1/8 in.); Including mounting: 186.7 x 76.2 cm (73 1/2 x 30 in.)

Culture

Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)

Museum

Cleveland Museum of Art, Japanese Art

Credit line

The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith

Rights

Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.

Who can see it

Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed

View at the Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

Here, a woman dressed as a man replaces Fugen, a bodhisattva—a being among those considered enlightened in Buddhism—who symbolizes learning as a path to awakening and typically rides an elephant. The painting teaches the lesson of impermanence through the petals falling from the lotus flower the woman holds. It also alludes to the legend of Eguchi, a 12th-century courtesan who, following an encounter with a Buddhist monk-poet called Saigyō, revealed herself to be a manifestation of Fugen.

• Paintings
• 1700s
• Japan