The Twelve Devas (Color on Silk)

Twelve Hanging Scrolls, National Treasure since 1952

The Twelve Devas (Color on Silk) (絹本著色十二天像, Kenpon Chakushoku Juniten Zo) is a Heian-period Buddhist painting at the Kyoto National Museum, 527 Chaya-cho, Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture, designated a National Treasure on 29 March 1952. The quantity is twelve hanging scrolls, the category painting, and the owner the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs leaves the field for designation as an Important Cultural Property blank, so the work went to National Treasure without that earlier step, the sixteenth such case among the properties covered here.

The commentary reads: a work of the Heian period. This is the twelfth one-sentence commentary among the properties covered here.

Same Title, Same Count, Same Owner

This is not the only property called the Twelve Devas.

The Nara National Museum, at 50 Noborioji-cho, Nara City, holds a property of the same name, also twelve hanging scrolls, also owned by the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage. Its period is Kamakura, and it became an Important Cultural Property on 29 August 1904.

Title, count and owner all agree. What differs is period, rank of listing and the museum that holds it: Heian, National Treasure, Kyoto here; Kamakura, Important Cultural Property, Nara there.

Works of the same name have come up before, but never with the owner matching too. The images of Fudo Myoo were listed by state, prefecture and city, and the Fugen Enmei images had different owners.

Since the owner cannot separate them, period and museum must.

The Old Article Named a Different Museum

The holding institution was recorded inconsistently as well.

Accounts elsewhere say the work is seen at the Tokyo National Museum, or on deposit there. The Agency's record gives the location as the Kyoto National Museum.

The prefecture field in the database holds both Tokyo and Kyoto. The Agency's own field for prefecture of location gives Kyoto alone.

A deposit can move, but the Agency's record says Kyoto National Museum, and this article follows the record.

With the Nezame handscroll, the database likewise held two prefectures, Osaka and Nara. Two values in a location field have now occurred twice in succession.

Twelve Complete Does Not Mean Twelve from the Start

An important observation about this subject appears in the record for another property.

A set in Gifu Prefecture, recorded as the Twelve Devas with three appended scrolls, carries a full commentary. Each sheet measures roughly 77 centimetres by 36.5 centimetres, and every figure stands with a flaming halo.

It continues: although twelve scrolls are complete as things stand, the manner varies, and they fall into four scrolls of the oldest character, five somewhat later, and three later still.

It adds that how the present grouping came about is unknown, and that loss and replacement may have been repeated, or separate sets of Twelve Devas may at some stage have been brought together as one.

Twelve scrolls complete does not by itself mean twelve from the beginning. The observation belongs to the Gifu property, but it matters for the subject at large. The record for this work is a single sentence and carries no such discussion.

Seeing It

The work is at the Kyoto National Museum and owned by the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage. It is a museum holding, not an object kept on permanent display.

Buddhist paintings are vulnerable to light and are usually shown only for short periods. All twelve are not necessarily shown at once.

As with the sixteen arhat scrolls, a work of many sheets may go on show only in part.

Exhibition plans can change, so check the museum's information before travelling.