Lot 3086: FUGAI EKUN (1568-1654) HOTEI LEANING OVER HIS BAG

FUGAI EKUN (1568-1654) HOTEI LEANING OVER HIS BAG, MOMOYAMA (1573-1615) OR Edo period (1615-1868), late 16th-early 17th century Hanging scroll, ink on paper; the deity leaning on his enormous cloth bag, the tip of his staff visible to the left, accompanied by a 20-character Chinese inscription (see below), signed and sealed Fugai 32 x 12 1/2in (81.3 x 31.8cm)

The inscription, which appears in several of Fugai’s paintings, reads: Who can describe him in worldly terms When his good fortune is even greater than his girth? What is this seasoned beggar laughing at When he alone is traveling the road? Widely viewed as the greatest ink painter in the Soto tradition of Zen Buddhism, in art-historical terms Fugai Ekun forms a bridge between the China-rooted Zen figure painting of the Kamakura period (1185- 1333) and the often more relaxed and informal approach favored by the later Rinzai master Hakuin Ekaku (1685-1768) and his followers. Following his early Zen training at the Sorinji Temple in present-day Gunma Prefecture, Fugai wandered Japan for two decades in search of enlightenment before settling briefly at the Joganji Temple near Odawara in 1618, then spending the remainder of his days living in caves in the nearby mountains. Stephen Addiss suggests that Fugai resembled the tenth-century Chinese monk Budai (in Japanese, Hotei) in his gpenchant for wandering, playing with children, and refusing official positions in the Buddhist hierarchyh (Stephen Addiss, The Art of Zen: Paintings and Calligraphy by Japanese Monks, 1600-1925, New York, Abrams, 1989, p. 50); in consequence, Fugai depicted Hotei often, usually emphasizing, as here, the roly-poly monk’s enigmatically cheerful smile.