hanging scroll;
painting
- Museum number
- 1913,0501,0.359
- Description
-
Painting, hanging scroll. Hotei, dressed in Chinese Buddhist monk's robe, carrying Chinese fan and linen bag, looking at his reflection on water. Ink on paper. Signed and sealed.
- Production date
- 1848-1854 (c.)
- Dimensions
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Height: 90.50 centimetres
-
Width: 27 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Clark 1992
Hotei, numbered as one of the Seven Gods of Good Luck ('shichifukujin') in the Edo period, is generally portrayed as a laughing, pot-bellied Chinese monk, carrying a staff, Chinese fan and linen bag (from which he derives his name), in which he stows lucky treasures. Paintings of the Gods of Good Luck were always hung at the New Year holiday, and prints of them arriving in a lucky treasure ship were placed under the pillow at night to ensure good fortune during the coming year.
Hotei was a common subject for Zen ink painters during the Muromachi period and he is variously shown in carefree attitudes riding an ox, gazing at the moon, fording a river, and so on, but this composition of him gazing at his reflection in a stream seems to be unusual. Perhaps the idea was simply to poke fun at how difficult it must have been to see his reflection over such an enormous belly.
The technique is a loose version of the Kano ink style (ultimately derived from Zen monk painters) habitually adopted by artists of all schools for paintings of the Lucky Gods.
Literature:
Robinson, Basil, 'Kuniyoshi'. London, HMSO, 1961, no. 97.
'(Hizo) Ukiyo-e taikan' ('Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in European Collections'), ed. Narazaki Muneshige. Vol. 1, Tokyo, Kodansha, 1987, BW no. 55.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2009, 18 Feb-15 Jun, BM Japanese Galleries, 'Japan from prehistory to present'
2022 April - October, BM Mitsubishi Corporation Japanese Galleries
- Acquisition date
- 1913
- Acquisition notes
- The collection of Japanese and Chinese paintings belonging to Arthur Morrison was purchased by Sir William Gwynne-Evans, who presented it to the British Museum in 1913.
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1913,0501,0.359
- Additional IDs
-
Asia painting number: Jap.Ptg.1568 (Japanese Painting Number)
