Detail View: The AMICA Library: Hotei

AMICA ID: 
CMA_.1988.17
AMICA Library Year: 
2003
Object Type: 
Paintings
Creator Name: 
Etetsu, Jonan
Creator Nationality: 
Japanese
Creator Role: 
inscription by
Creator Dates/Places: 
1444 - 1507
Gender: 
M
Creator Name-CRT: 
Jonan Etetsu
Title: 
Hotei
Title Type: 
Primary
View: 
Full View
Creation Date: 
late 1400s
Creation Start Date: 
1460
Creation End Date: 
1499
Materials and Techniques: 
hanging scroll; ink on paper
Classification Term: 
Painting
Style or Period: 
Japan, Muromachi Period (1392-1573)
Dimensions: 
Overall: 132.1cm x 41.65cm, Painting only: 51cm x 24.8cm
AMICA Contributor: 
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Owner Location: 
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
ID Number: 
1988.17
Credit Line: 
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
Rights: 
Context: 
The Zen monk Jonan Etetsu is recorded as the 183rd abbot of T?fuku-ji temple in the eastern hills of Kyoto, one of the earliest and most influential Zen institutions in medieval Japan. Otherwise, the onlybiographical information known to date has been gleaned from a few inscriptions on paintings documenting his friendship with another eminent monk, Ry??an Keigo (1425-1514), and two paintings bearing Jonan?s own poetic inscriptions. This image of Hotei (Chinese: Budai), a legendary, 10th-century Chan (Zen) monk, is one of those paintings. In Japan the image of the mirthful, pot-bellied Hotei enjoyed great popularity from the 14th century onward. Zen literature and popular folklore merged to create a storehouse of attractive fiction concerning this delightful character?s worldly adventures as a kind of itinerant Santa Claus and more symbolically as the future Buddha, Miroku, in disguise. For the Japanese, Hotei came to represent an unfettered path to spiritual enlightenment.The identity of the artist of this painting is unknown, although it may have been Etetsu, who attained a high rank within the 15th-century Zen community.
Related Image Identifier Link: 
CMA_.1988.17.tif