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Lot Essay
published:
Dai Hokusai ten: Edo ga unda sekai no eshi (Great Hokusai exhibition: A world artist born of Edo), edited by Asahi Shimbun, Tobu Museum of Art, Otsu City Museum of History, Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagata Seiji, editor-in-chief, exh. cat. (Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun, 1993), pl. 42.
Kobayashi Tadashi, ed., Azabu bijutsu kogeikan (Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts), vol. 6 of Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e taikan (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1995), pl. 58.
Nagata Seiji, ed., Monogatari-e (Narrative painting), vol. 5 of Hokusai bijutsukan, 2nd ed. (Tokyo: Shueisha, 1994), pl. 100.
Tokubetsu ten Hokusai: Fukutsu no gajin damashii (Special exhibition of Hokusai: The indomitable painter's spirit), exh. cat. (Nagoya: Nagoya City Museum and Chunichi Shimbunsha, 1991), pl. 203.
The legends of Hotei (Budai in Chinese), one of Japan's seven gods of good fortune, derive from the biography of a Chinese Buddhist sage of the late 9th and early 10th centuries. A popular painting subject in East Asian art, Hotei usually appears as a happy-go-lucky monk with a bulging stomach and a cloth sack (the literal meaning of his name). Here he plays a flute while comfortably propped upon his over-stuffed sack. Tucked into the back of his robes is a tasseled ceremonial fan, another of his attributes.
The legend carved on the seal, Kimo dasoku, "hair on a turtle, legs on snake," refers to an ancient Chinese story about an artist who lost a drawing contest because he added superfluous details to his work. Hokusai used this seal during the first decade of the 19th century.
Dai Hokusai ten: Edo ga unda sekai no eshi (Great Hokusai exhibition: A world artist born of Edo), edited by Asahi Shimbun, Tobu Museum of Art, Otsu City Museum of History, Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagata Seiji, editor-in-chief, exh. cat. (Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun, 1993), pl. 42.
Kobayashi Tadashi, ed., Azabu bijutsu kogeikan (Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts), vol. 6 of Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e taikan (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1995), pl. 58.
Nagata Seiji, ed., Monogatari-e (Narrative painting), vol. 5 of Hokusai bijutsukan, 2nd ed. (Tokyo: Shueisha, 1994), pl. 100.
Tokubetsu ten Hokusai: Fukutsu no gajin damashii (Special exhibition of Hokusai: The indomitable painter's spirit), exh. cat. (Nagoya: Nagoya City Museum and Chunichi Shimbunsha, 1991), pl. 203.
The legends of Hotei (Budai in Chinese), one of Japan's seven gods of good fortune, derive from the biography of a Chinese Buddhist sage of the late 9th and early 10th centuries. A popular painting subject in East Asian art, Hotei usually appears as a happy-go-lucky monk with a bulging stomach and a cloth sack (the literal meaning of his name). Here he plays a flute while comfortably propped upon his over-stuffed sack. Tucked into the back of his robes is a tasseled ceremonial fan, another of his attributes.
The legend carved on the seal, Kimo dasoku, "hair on a turtle, legs on snake," refers to an ancient Chinese story about an artist who lost a drawing contest because he added superfluous details to his work. Hokusai used this seal during the first decade of the 19th century.