Descent of the Nine Luminaries and the Seven Stars at Kasugamid- to late 1300s · Study 2015.63

Context from the museum

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 torii . 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: Navagraha ) 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: honjibutsu mandarazu ) format prevalent in medieval Japanese Shinto-Buddhist painting, to generate an image connected to the worship of celestial bodies in Esoteric Buddhism.

Museum description reproduced from its CC0 open-access record. Read the original catalog entry.

A detail to notice

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

Observation supplied by the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Read the dimensions before the image

The selected painting only measurement for Descent of the Nine Luminaries and the Seven Stars at Kasuga is 42 cm wide and 106 cm high, equivalent to approximately 16.5 × 41.7 inches. Dividing width by height gives a format ratio of 0.40:1. The rectangular bounding area is 0.45 square meters; it describes the measured footprint, not the amount of paint or the monetary value.

On an illustrative 300 cm wall, the recorded width occupies 14.0% of the span before adding a frame. A centered placement leaves approximately 129.0 cm on each side before adding a frame. These are calculations by Physical Art For Crypto using museum measurements. They are not the museum’s display recommendations.

Questions to bring to your own collection

With Descent of the Nine Luminaries and the Seven Stars at Kasuga in view, identify one feature you can point to, then distinguish what the museum records from your personal response. Keep its medium, Hanging scroll; ink, color, gold and cut gold on silk, in your notes when comparing contemporary works.

• Which part of this vertical composition catches your eye first?
• Would a 42 cm width still suit the space after allowing for furniture and a frame?
• What surface detail would you need to see in person or in a close photograph?