Mattia Jona, Master Drawings and Prints, Japanese Prints - Piazzetta Guastalla 5, 20122 Milan, Italy, tel (+39) 02 8053315

Shijo-style artist, late 19th century HOTEI
Black ink with underdrawing in grey, 444 x 277 mm.

Hotei (Budai in Chinese) is an interpretation of the Bodhisattva Maitreya, the predicted Buddha to succeed Gautama Buddha in the future. In Japanese folklore Hotei persists as one of the Seven Lucky Gods. He is almost always represented as smiling or laughing , surrounded with children and carrying a linen sack, which never empties and is filled with many precious items.