Lot 286: HAKUIN EKAKU (1685-1768) Edo period (1615-1868), mid-18th century Large

HAKUIN EKAKU (1685-1768) Edo period (1615-1868), mid-18th century Large yokomono (horizontal kakejiku [hanging scroll]); ink on paper mounted in silk, inscribed with a large character Chu (Loyalty) followed by an inscription in smaller characters Kimi ni chu oya ni ko aru hito shi araba mino kasa mo yaro tsuchi mo fukuro (see below for translation), sealed at top right Kokan’i and after the inscription Ekaku and Hakuin, with a wooden tomobako storage box inscribed outside Hakuin Zenshi Chuji (‘Loyalty’ character by Zen Master Hakuin) and with a manuscript certificate of authenticity. Overall: 146cm x 84cm (57½in x 33 1/8in); image: 58cm x 66cm (22 7/8in x 26in). (3).

As translated by Audrey Yoshiko Seo and Stephen Addiss, the meaning of the inscription, seen on a number of other paintings and calligraphies by Hakuin, is ‘If people are loyal to their lord and filial to their parents I’ll give them my straw coat, hat, mallet, and bag’ (see Audrey Yoshiko Seo and Stephen Addiss, The Sound of One Hand: Paintings and Calligraphy by Zen Master Hakuin, Boston, Shambhala Publications, 2010, p.86 and plate 2.16). The painting referred to by Seo and Addiss has Daikoku, one of the Seven Gods of Good Fortune, sitting in front of the inscription and the coat, hat, mallet, and bag are all attributes of the Gods: the cloak and hat of invisibility, the mallet wielded by Daikoku himself and the large bag of treasures carried by the jolly pot-bellied Hotei. For another example of the same inscription on a ‘Loyalty’ calligraphy by Hakuin, in the Gitter-Yelen Collection (Man’yoan), see http://www.manyoancollection.org/work/chu-sincerity/ (inv. no. 2006.4).