Hotei with Daoist Immortals: Immortal Riding Carp
1696
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1696
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Hotei with Daoist Immortals: Immortal Riding Carp is a 1696 unspecified by Kyūseki Tomonobu, a Baroque work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
This triptych shows a big laughing Hotei sitting on a floating carp. The left and right panels add two Daoist immortals in cloudy robes. Hotei’s wide grin and belly symbolize joy and plenty in Zen belief. Daist and Zen ideas rarely mix, yet this rare scroll blends both. The carp means luck and long life in Japan, while the immortals ride clouds across the sky. Look up Kyūseki Tomonobu (Japanese, 1653–1721) next.
Hotei was a Chan (Japanese: Zen) monk living in China during the 900s who, in the 1300s, became a legendary figure in Japan. At that time a popular cult praising him sprang up, extending beyond Zen to other religious communities. This rare triptych embraces a central Zen icon with flanking Daoist images, thereby suggesting the compatibility, rather than the exclusivity, of these two creeds. Hotei also enjoys popularity in Japan as a kind of genre, or folk figure, which explains his mirthful expression in Japanese paintings. The Daoist figures in contrast appear eccentric and foreign-looking,…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Kyūseki Tomonobu (1653–1721) was a Japanese artist.
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