Cleveland Museum of Art
The White Path Between Two Rivers
- Date
- 1200s
- Medium
- hanging scroll; ink, color, gold, silver, and cut gold on silk
- Culture
- Japan, Kamakura period (1185–1333)
- Department
- Japanese Art
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 133012
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
This painting is a visual presentation of a teaching ascribed to the Chinese Buddhist monk Shandao (善導) (613–681). It describes a challenging journey to the land of the Buddha Amida along a narrow path between a river of fire and a river of water. The story is about escaping the six paths of reincarnation—the heavens and hells, as well as the realms of humans, animals, hungry ghosts, and fierce beings. The Buddha Amida appears at the top in his Pure Land, or Western Paradise. The Six Realms of Transmigration are the: heavenly realm, hells, human realm, animal realm, realm of hungry ghosts, and realm of fierce beings.
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Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- Gift of The Norweb Foundation
- Provenance
- ?–1955: (Howard Hollis and Co., Cleveland, OH, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) | 1955–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
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