The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of September 29, 2023

Horse Race at the Kamo Shrine

賀茂神社競馬図屏風

early to mid-1600s

Part of a set. See all set records

Japan, Edo period

(1615-1868)

One of a pair of six-panel folding screens, ink and color on gilded paper

Image: 161 x 362 cm (63 3/8 x 142 1/2 in.); Overall: 176.5 x 377.3 cm (69 1/2 x 148 9/16 in.); Closed: 176.5 x 64 x 12.5 cm (69 1/2 x 25 3/16 x 4 15/16 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1976.95.1

Location

not on view

Description

Kamo Shrine in Kyoto, seen in the upper half of the left screen, has held an annual horse race on May 5th since the ninth century. Serving as a snapshot of the festivities, this pair of screens captures nearly 600 people watching the race, beginning at the bottom part of the right screen and continuing to the left. The race is a great spectacle where aristocratic riders cling to their fast and unwieldy mounts. While many of those in attendance seem in rapt attention to the main event, other vignettes depict people engaged in an array of activities. This pair of screens was likely originally part of a group of linked murals.

Provenance
?–1976
(Kochukyo Co., Inc., Tokyo, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1976–
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 386 archive.org
Lee, Sherman E., Michael R. Cunningham, and Ursula Korneitchouk. One Thousand Years of Japanese Art (650-1650): From the Cleveland Museum of Art: Catalogue. New York: Japan Society, 1981. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 80–81, no. 46
Tōyō kaiga no seika: tokubetsuten: Kurīvurando Bijutsukan no korekushon kara [東洋絵画の精華: 特别展: クリーヴラント美術館のコレクションから= Highlights of Asian painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art]. Nara, Japan: Nara National Museum, 1998. Reproduced: pp. 132–133, cat. no. 87
Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. Mentioned: p. 212; Reproduced: pp. 214–215
Cunningham, Michael R. Unfolding Beauty: Japanese Screens from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Reproduced: p. 28-29
Sakakibara, Satoru. Biombo: Japan heritage as legend of gold. [Japan?]: Nikkei, 2007. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 242–243, fig. 98
Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 53 no. 03, May/June 2013 Mentioned and reproduced: p. 11 archive.org
Vilbar, Sinéad. “Triumphant Returns: Treasured paintings on loan to Japanese museums and archaeological collections go back on display in Cleveland.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 59, no. 1 (January/February 2019): 3, 12-13. Reproduced: P. 3.
Exhibition history

The Cleveland Museum of Art; Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 236); April 19, 2013 - December 24, 2013

The Cleveland Museum of Art; Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 121); March 10, 2003 - July 16, 2003.

Highlights of Asian Paintings from The Cleveland Museum of Art. Nara National Museum (organizer) (February 21-March 29, 1998); Suntory Museum of Art (April 28-June 21, 1998).

Unfolding Beauty: Japanese Screens from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 15-September 16, 2001).

Biombo: Japan's Gift of Folding Screens to the West. Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan (September 1-October 21, 2007); Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan (October 30-December 16, 2007).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1976.95.1