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  • Hotei fording a river with a young woman on his back
Hotei fording a river with a young woman on his back
Hotei fording a river with a young woman on his back
Hotei fording a river with a young woman on his back
Hotei fording a river with a young woman on his back
Hotei fording a river with a young woman on his back
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Suzuki Harunobu (鈴木春信) (artist 1724 – 1770)

Hotei fording a river with a young woman on his back

Print

ca 1769
4.75 in x 24 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed:Suzuki Harunobu
鈴木春信
Yale University Art Gallery
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - chūban example for comparison
Museum of Fine Arts - Shigenaga example for comparison Hotei was one of Harunobu's favorite subjects, especially of humorous prints. "Possibly a parody of the michiyuki scene in the play Ohan and Chōemon." [This information is from a similar Harunobu print at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.] Gookin is the one who suggested this motif as a mitate, but Waterhouse thought that it might be "...possible but perhaps not needed."

Pins had indicated that there was a copy of this hashira-e at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, but so far we have been unable to confirm this. It is not included with any of the other Harunobu prints listed at that museum online.

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David Waterhouse wrote about the origin of Hotei. "Hotei was originally a Chán monk of the late Tang dynasty. Bùdài, as his name reads in modern Mandarin, lived on Simígshān, was famous for the constant happy expression on his face, and for his corpulence; and invariably went round with a linen sack (bùdài)) begging for alms. He died in 917, came to be worshipped as a manifestation of Mílè, (Jap. Miroku), the Buddha of the Future..."

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Illustrated:

1) in black and white in Japanese Pillar Prints: Hashira-e by Jacob Pins, Robert G. Sawers Publishing, 1982, page 130, #230.

2) in Edo Culture in Japanese Prints by George J. Lee, Yale, 1972, #6.
beautiful woman picture (bijin-ga - 美人画) (genre)
pillar print (hashira-e - 柱絵) (genre)
mitate-e (見立て絵) (genre)
Hotei (布袋) (author)