Page 32 - Bonhams September 11 2018 New York Japanese & Korean Works of Art

1070 1071

1070 1071
HAKUIN EKAKU (1685-1768) HAKUIN EKAKU (1685-1768)
Mamezo Hotei (Hotei in the Guise of a Street Performer) Chigo Monju Bosatsu (The Bodhisattva Monju in the Guise of a
Edo period (1615-1868), mid-18th century Young Acolyte)
Hanging scroll, ink on paper; depicting Hotei standing on his bag Edo period (1615-1868), mid-18th century
and wearing a happy expression as he balances a pole in his teeth, Hanging scroll, ink on paper; depicting Monju Bosatsu holding a long
inscribed In front of the Imperial Palace a seven-year-old maiden nyoi scepter in his right hand and a scroll in his left, seated in the
serves sake, with succession seal and two further seals, one reading “royal ease” posture on a lion with its eyes fixed on the viewer, with
Hakuin seals Hakuin and Ekaku
With a wood tomobako storage box inscribed and authenticated by With wood tomobako storage box
Yamakawa Koichi (1902-1977), the economist and prominent scholar 34 7/8 x 11in (88.6 x 28.1cm)
of Zen painting
43 3/4 x 10 13/8in (111.3 x 26.5cm) $2,500 - 3,500
81 x 12 1/2in (206 x 32cm) overall
Provenance
$3,500 - 4,500 John Stevens Collection

Provenance Monju Bosatsu is a key figure in the Buddhist pantheon,
John Stevens Collection the wisest of the Bodhisattvas and the one with the keenest intellect
and most penetrating insight. In standard depictions, Monju wields
Hakuin painted Hotei several times in the guise of a late-seventeenth-
century beggar named Mamezo (“Beany”) who was famed for his a razor sharp sword (to cut through illusion) and a scroll (containing
performances on the streets of Osaka, including bodily contortions, sutras of the highest wisdom), and sits on a lion whose
humorous banter, and feats of magic and juggling. Mamezo was best roar represents the voice of the Buddhist Law. Hakuin’s portrayals
known for his plate-spinning on top of a long pole held in his teeth: of Monju ignore some of this traditional iconography and in this
the plate is invisible here, suggesting that it was tossed in the air case the sword is replaced by a long nyoi (wish-granting) scepter;
before being caught on the top of the pole. While the severe Daruma more significantly perhaps, Monju takes the form of an attractive
cut himself off from the world and shut himself up in his cave to focus adolescent boy of the type that acted as lovers for older Buddhist
on meditation, Hakuin’s Hotei is the exact opposite, living like Hakuin
right in the middle of things, dispensing Buddhist wisdom symbolized monks. There are many medieval “chigo stories” in which a young
by a big bag of goodies; Hotei not only enjoys entertainment, but lover, revealed to be an incarnation of Kannon or Monju, leads an
also provides it for others. Since plate-spinning requires just as older monk to enlightenment through sex; see Gary P. Leupp, Male
much concentration as deep Zen meditation, Hakuin is teaching us Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan,
here that whatever we do, we must do it fully in the present, without Berkeley: University of Chicago Press, 1995, pp. 38-42.
slacking or daydreaming.
FINE JAPANESE AND KOREAN ART | 31