Hotei
Kano Takanobu Japanese
Calligrapher Tetsuzan Sōdon Japanese
Not on view
Hotei, a popular figure in the Zen pantheon, is often depicted as a rotund, good-humored monk carrying a large sack. A semihistorical figure, he is believed to have lived in southern China in the late ninth century and was eventually recognized as a manifestation of Miroku (Sanskrit: Maitreya), Buddha of the Future. The poetic text, from a eulogy for Hotei by the Chinese Daoist Bai Yuchan (1194–1229), was transcribed by Tetsuzan Sōdon, a leading Zen monk-scholar who served as an abbot of the Myōshinji Temple in Kyoto.
Hotei’s sack encompasses
the Great Emptiness. Holding a staff, he tramps
around three thousand worlds. Miroku claps his hands,
and laughs—ha, ha! The bright moon shines,
the wind disappears.
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